Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 20, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
I yearned for quiet when I managed a household with young children. I knew that God was in the silence I desired, but I struggled to hear his voice in my heart because of the hustle and bustle of daily life. For just a few minutes, I wanted to be able to clear my head, refocus, and utter a quick prayer.
In today’s gospel, Jesus addresses his words “to you who hear.” He is not referring to the physical sense of hearing; instead, he refers to hearing in a spiritual sense. What does it mean to hear spiritually?
If our hearing is spiritually healthy, we listen with our hearts for the truth that God speaks to us and then act on what we hear. It is following God’s will as best as possible to experience the peace that surpasses understanding. Listening with our hearts is tough to do. It requires a concerted effort to step away from the noise of the world, sometimes found even within our own families.
Today, Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the children to whom Our Lady of Fatima appeared, are celebrated on the Church calendar. They illustrate what listening with the heart looks like in the everyday world. Despite many sufferings, they obeyed the Blessed Mother’s requests, and God granted graces to comfort them.
In just a few days, Lent begins. How can we carve out silence in our daily lives during this holy season, like Sts. Jacinta and Francisco Marto did, to hear God’s voice and to respond with love?
Prayer
Lord God, whose love is our forgiveness, teach us that forgiveness is not about you changing hearts but about us changing from a rock-hard heart to a human heart. Jesus on the cross said what we too should say of everyone who offends us: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Let us love the sinner but hate the sin. Love recognizes that loved people love people and only hurt people hurt people. Help us to comprehend your fatherly love that is your merciful forgiveness.
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.
