Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
February 20, 2025
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They said in reply,
“John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets.”
And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
In the past five chapters of Mark’s Gospel, the disciples have witnessed Jesus feed both 4,000 and 5,000 people, heal those who are blind, deaf, and ill, drive out demons, walk on water, and calm the stormy seas. The twelve apostles themselves were commissioned to perform these very miracles, and Jesus sent them out two by two. These disciples have done and have seen so much already!
I like to imagine this scene of Jesus questioning the disciples on their journey like a question posed to a car full of friends on a road trip, meant to spark deep reflection and conversation during the downtimes of travel. When Jesus asks this question, “Who am I?” the disciples initially respond by drawing upon the external source of the testimony of others. But then Jesus presses them to look inwards, to determine what it is that they truly believe.
As a high school teacher in the modern classroom, I have grown accustomed to being unsure of the source of some of the responses I have received from students. Is this answer I am grading cited from a passage in the textbook? Is it an answer found online or a ChatGPT generated response? Or does it truly represent an original thought held by the student? Like a teacher who wants to hear a student demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in their own words, Jesus wants us to express our belief in God with words and actions that reflect the faith that is marked on our individual hearts.
In our own lives, how do we answer this question that Jesus poses to us: “But who do you say that I am?” Do we look to others to verbalize for us what we should believe, or do we respond personally and confidently from the depths of our hearts like Saint Peter did?
Prayer
Christ Jesus, you touched the eyes of the blind man twice before he was fully cured. Grant us confidence in your persistence in the face of enduring troubles or sin in our lives. Help us to know that you never leave us, that you will continue to heal us, that your love is greater than our weakness. Grant us faith that we will one day see your love for us clearly and distinctly. 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.
