Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
February 19, 2023
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand over your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
I have a six-year-old, which means that often a single storybook or favorite movie can be requested repeatedly for weeks at a time. The Grinch movie was one such repeat request—on loop in our house during December. Because of this, even a month and a half out, I cannot read today’s gospel, one of the most personally challenging and countercultural passages in scripture, without thinking of that movie.
As most of us are familiar with, the Grinch steals Christmas (or at least all the presents). When met with this injustice, the Whos join in community to sing. When the Grinch offers them his confession, the Whos forego meting out punitive retribution and, instead, invite him to Christmas dinner.
One of the simplest but most profound statements Pope Francis has made during his Pontificate is his reminder that a core part of our Christian mission is to build bridges, not walls. The fictitious Whos have internalized this message.
When met with the Grinch’s confession, they could have pursued the proverbial witch hunt. Had this witch hunt not resulted in the Grinch’s demise, it would have certainly solidified the wall that already existed between the parties. Instead, they chose to turn the other cheek. By inviting him in, they built a bridge that improved a relationship and changed a life.
Can we learn something from a simple children’s story and offer grace to those who have offended us? Can we seek to better understand and love as God has loved us? I pray that we always remember to build bridges and not walls.
Prayer
Lord Jesus: These are hard sayings: to forego revenge, to give more than is due, to walk the extra mile, to love my enemy! Help me, Lord Jesus, to embrace them and to become the child of God you call me to be. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Sister Thea Bowman is a joyful example of contemporary sainthood. Sister Bowman was born Bertha Bowman in Mississippi in 1937. Bertha's grandfather had been a slave before the Emancipation Proclamation, but her parents were both professionals: her father was a doctor and her mother taught. Bertha was raised in a vibrantly spiritual Methodist home, and she became attracted to the life of love and service that the religious sisters in her town led. With her parents' permission, young Bertha converted to Catholicism when she was just nine.
Bertha was enrolled in a Catholic School, which deepened her appreciation for the Catholic faith and for the sisters who taught her. When she was fifteen, Bertha traveled north to Wisconsin to join the order of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse. She attended college at Viterbo University in Wisconsin and then traveled to Washington D.C. to earn her master's degree and doctorate at the Catholic University of America. She finished her Ph.D. in 1972 and began to teach at CUA, then her alma mater of Viterbo, and Xavier University.
Sister Thea, as she became known as, worked diligently not only at education but on evangelization of Black American Catholics. The Church in the South had been wounded by the history of segregation and slavery. The social structures of sin prevented the marginalized populations from feeling welcome in the Church that they saw as a Church of white people. Sister Thea worked to create a hymnal that showcased Black spirituality and culture. She traveled across the American continent and even abroad to the Caribbean Islands and Africa to spread a ministry of joy—a ministry of proclaiming the joy of each culture's unique differences yet their unity in Christ.
Sister Thea died on March 30, 1990. Shortly before her death, Notre Dame announced her that year's recipient of the Laetare Medal. Sister Thea's cause for canonization has been opened, and the United States bishops announced their support for her canonization at their 2018 fall conference.
Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, who worked to overcome racial divisions so that all Christians might be united in Christ—pray for us!
To learn even more about Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sr. Thea Bowman appears courtesy of Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.