Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 24, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
“Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.”
Jesus’ commands seem like extreme examples—from cutting off your foot to plucking out your eye—but they make his point clear. If something, no matter how essential it feels, keeps us from God, get rid of it. It can be as frivolous as a penchant for online shopping or as debilitating as substance addiction.
I have plucked a lot out of my life recently, not in an intentional quest for virtue, but as the result of having a newborn and toddler. Life has shrunk to the essentials. I’m in a season of comfy clothes that are constantly spilled on. A season of eating and sleeping when I can find the time. Of mainly staying at home, and washing dishes and doing laundry during my “free time.”
In short, I’m in a season when frivolities and distractions naturally fall away, and I’m laid bare by gratitude (but also sleep-deprived desperation).
This simplification and vulnerability have brought me closer to God, often without realizing it. It has taught me through concrete experiences that so many things in our lives are not necessary for happiness—that so many things are taking the place of dependence on God.
Lent is fast approaching. That time of reflection and minimalism when we are soul searching and simplifying. It is a time to look at what in our life stands between God and us and do something about it.
Prayer
Loving God, we often stumble and cause scandal and even pain to others. We beg your forgiveness and beg your grace to expel the causes of stumbling from our lives. Salt us with your fire, that we might be cleansed of the misuse of your gifts and be restored to be the salt that preserves and protects your kingdom on earth. We pray especially for your little ones, that they may be protected from our failures. 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.
