Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 20, 2020
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Imagine Jesus walking through your day with you and, at different points in the day, Jesus asks you the same question he posed to his disciples: “Who do people say that I am?”
“Who do your coworkers say that I am?”
“Who does your grocery store clerk say I am?”
“Who do your neighbors say that I am?”
Then Jesus asks you, “Who do you say that I am?”
The answer to first questions has nothing to do with whether the people you encounter each day are Christians.
I know that I can’t answer for others on the question, “Who do you say Jesus is?” but I can ask myself, “How did I show Jesus to each of these people?” And I know that when I am more focused on my daily routine than on my call to live the Gospel, I might not show Jesus to these people at all. My mind is set not on divine things but on human things. When that happens, the Jesus I know in my heart is not fully communicated through my words and my actions to those people with whom I interact on a daily basis.
If the only opportunity that some people have to know Jesus is through us, we need to emulate the humble Jesus and be attuned to how we can show his divine love through our everyday lives.
Will your thoughts and actions today point to divine things or human things?
Prayer
Jesus our Teacher, you challenged your disciples to know you more intimately, and so come to recognize you as the Christ. Help us never to be content with our knowledge of you, but always to desire to know and love you more. Bring our hearts to rejoice in Peter’s confession that “You are the Christ” – our salvation and the fulfillment of our lives. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Francisco and Jacinta Marto were siblings who lived near Fatima, Portugal, and received the famous visions of Our Lady there.
On May 13, 1917, they were tending sheep with their cousin, Lucia Santos, when they received the first of six visions of Mary. Francisco was 9 years old, and Jacinta was 7, at the time of the apparition.
Mary gave the children three secrets, studied and approved by the Church, in which she spoke of the coming world war and of the conversion of Russia. Reports of the apparition drew controversy and attention world-wide, and Fatima became a shrine and pilgrimage site.
The children were instructed to pray for the conversion of sinners, and after the visions they all took on mortifications such as fasting and wearing tight cords around their waists.
Francisco was thoughtful and quiet and preferred to pray alone. Jacinta was affectionate and had a sweet singing voice. In 1918, the two were struck with the Spanish Flu epidemic that soon took their lives. During their months of illness, they insisted on walking to church for Mass and Eucharistic devotions. They would also kneel and pray for hours with their heads on the ground, according to instructions they received in their vision.
Francisco declined hospital treatment and died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10. Jacinta was taken several places for treatment, including a surgery without anesthesia.
Jacinta devoted the pain of her illness to the conversion of sinners, and she finally died on this date in 1920.
They are both buried at the Our Lady of Fatima Basilica in Portugal and were canonized in 2017. (When they were beatified in 2000, Jacinta was the youngest child to be beatified who was not martyred.)
Statues of Francisco and Jacinta kneeling before Our Lady of Fatima stand in front of what used to be the Fatima Retreat House across the lake from campus. The retreat house is now a residence for Holy Cross religious.
To learn even more about Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, you saw Mary at Fatima and prayed for our conversion—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto is in the public domain. Last accessed December 6, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
