Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 25, 2021
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”
During this Black History Month, I think of the American black slaves who cried out for freedom from their bondage. For four hundred years, generation after generation, these souls knocked and awaited the door to be opened. They endured horrific atrocities perpetrated by inhumane individuals but continued to pray and shout out hymns of praise and yearning. I have learned in my mere 72 years of existence that when I make requests of God, God uses God’s time, not mine, to respond. God responds as God sees fit, which is often a mystery to me.
At about age five I was removed from an abusive home environment and placed in a Catholic orphanage. Angels were dispatched to watch over me and my brothers – in the form of Catholic Social Services Worker Carmella Hartman, Superintendent Fr. John C. McCarren, Kindergarten teacher St. Mary Brigid Moriarty, and foster mother Anna Mae Sanford. I did not ask for angels, but they were assigned – because God knew I needed them. I am a black person.
To respond to our requests and needs God deputizes God’s creations to serve as our angels. During slavery, St. Peter Claver, a Spaniard, ministered to enslaved individuals as they arrived at South American ports after a nightmarish trans-Atlantic voyage, during which one-third of them died. The former slave Harriet Tubman, conductor on the Underground Railroad had a codename of Moses and never lost a “passenger” as she led numerous slaves to “heaven,” a codeword for Canada. Representative of a host of dynamic white female abolitionists, Lydia Maria Child, a prolific anti-slavery author, incurred scorn, censure, and financial ruin resulting from her radical views. In honor of the Trinity, I picked these three angels, but there were many more deputies who received and accepted assignments.
Fast forward, we – as a nation – are riddled with the residue and virus of American slavery as manifested by systemic racism, bias, and inequality. May we respond individually and collectively when called upon to accept our divine assignment to “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”
Prayer
Lord, your son taught us that those who ask, receive; that those who seek, find; and that those who knock, have the door opened for them. May we pray with such believing faith, trusting in your divine providence, so that we may receive the gifts you wish to give to us as we faithfully seek to follow your son. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Callistus Caravario is a 20th-century martyr, having offered his life to spread the faith in China.
He was born near Turin, Italy, in 1903, and was quiet and reflective as a child. Even as a youth, he had a regular practice of prayer. He loved his mother very much and remained in close contact with her throughout his life by writing many letters.
He was educated at a school opened by St. John Bosco some 50 years earlier. Callistus served at morning Mass every day and was at the top of his class. He was encouraged to join the community of Salesian priests who staffed the school.
In 1922, Bishop Versiglia, who worked in the foreign missions, visited the school to share his experiences in China with the community there. “Bishop, you will see me in China,” Callistus told him.
When the rector of the school went to the mission territory in China, Callistus begged to follow him. Soon, he was writing back to his mother that he was teaching the catechism in Chinese.
He was sent to Macao and then to Timor, where his example of goodness and discipleship encouraged many people. “My good mother,” he wrote, “pray that your Callistus may not be just half a priest but completely the priest.”
In 1929, he was ordained by Bishop Versiglia and entrusted with the mission in Linchow. He promptly visited all of the families in the area and connected with the children there.
The political situation in China had been worsening since 1927 with civil war between the government and communist forces. Persecutions began and foreigners and Christians were targeted.
In 1930, Callistus was accompanying Bishop Versiglia as he traveled through the Linchow mission by boat on a pastoral visit. Some young boys and girls traveled with them. A group of communist rebel pirates stopped the ship, and demanded that the group hand over the girls. Bishop Versiglia and Callistus refused.
The two were overtaken and bound. They had time to hear one another’s confessions before being shot on this date.
St. Callistus Caravario, the missionary to China who died defending the people he loved and served, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Callistus Caravario is in the public domain. Last accessed December 5, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
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