Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 24, 2021
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
When I think of the story of Jonah, I’m reminded of the reputation that Nineveh had in those times. A place of sin and decadence, it was believed by many, including Jonah, that such a place was too set in its ways to ever take an opportunity for repentance. Likewise, the ancient Israelites largely saw other nations as being entirely alienated from God, and would never have believed another monarch would seek God’s wisdom, rather than that of their own “gods.” However, when the word of God was extended to them, both came to see its truthfulness, the entire city of Nineveh repenting in sackcloth and ashes, and the Queen of Sheba heaping honor and praise on Solomon for his wisdom in the Lord.
As Jesus says in today’s gospel, his sacrifice for us represents something far greater than what Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba chose to take part in. His incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection have extended God’s Word and presence to us in a way no previous generation was offered. However, despite the magnitude of God’s love for us, we are often too prideful to acknowledge our own sinfulness and the necessity of repentance, instead defiantly demanding a sign that we must change. This Lent, I hope we will all take the opportunity to truly examine ourselves and identify the ways in which we live in sin. Then, like the Ninevites of Jonah’s time and the Queen of Sheba, I hope we will respond with a humble, contrite, and penitential heart when the Word of God challenges us to amend our ways.
Prayer
Father in Heaven, as he was lifted high on the Cross your son Jesus Christ gave us the ultimate sign of your love. Convert our hearts to rely on you. Deepen our faith, help us to carry our own crosses, so that we may place all our hope in your power to save. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Tommaso Maria Fusco was everything you could want in a priest. Though his vocation was born in suffering, it produced new life in imitation of the resurrection.
He was born 1831 in Italy to a pharmacist and an aristocratic woman. His parents were known for their faithfulness, but by the time he was 10, he had lost both of them to disease. An uncle took care of him and provided for his education.
In 1839, St. Alphonsus Liguori was canonized, and his story captivated the young Tommaso. The boy fostered a keen desire to give his life to God in service of the Church as a priest. He entered the seminary in 1847, following an older brother who would be ordained two years later.
By the time Tommaso was ordained in 1855, he had lost several other loved ones—his uncle who had taken care of him when his parents died, as well as a younger brother. In all of this suffering, death, and grief, he gravitated to a spirituality rooted in the image of Christ crucified, which fed him through the rest of his life.
Tommaso was skilled at encouraging people in their lives of prayer, and he opened his home to start a day school for wayward boys who needed an education. He also began gathering adults at a parish for evening prayer together.
Soon, he felt called to preach the good news to a wider population. In 1857, he entered a religious community—the Missionaries of Nocera—and spent several years wandering the region, preaching and ministering. He was an effective and motivating speaker, and gathered people around him to grow in the faith. He even brought priests together to study moral theology to improve their skills in the confessional.
He established several communities of prayer and pastoral action among the laity, and founded a religious community of nuns to care for poor girls and to open an orphanage.
Towards the end of his life, his work was envied by others, even fellow priests, and he suffered attacks on his character and false accusations. He bore these accusations by emulating the patience Jesus displayed in his passion.
Tommaso died in 1891 of liver disease—he had not yet reached the age of 60. The people of Pagani, his hometown, honored him as a true missionary and founder, an “exemplary priest” who worked tirelessly for the salvation of souls. The decree they published noted that “in life he loved the poor and in death forgave his enemies.”
Above all, he clung to the suffering of Jesus, and found there a source of hope, and an example to share his love with equal measure. People who knew him recognized him as a holy man. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
Blessed Tommaso Maria Fusco, you saw hope in suffering and helped others find it there, too—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Tommaso Maria Fusco is available for use under the Free Art License. Last accessed December 6, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
