Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 27, 2025
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 it 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.””
As a young professional, I’ve found myself living a comfortable life without an obvious need for a savior. As long as I do good work, prioritize friends and family, and support the right causes, it can seem like I am doing what God wants from me and go about my life. It can similarly be easy to witness from afar the large-scale suffering and injustice around the world and thus see the need for a savior for others. We can all have the tendency to only turn to God when something bad happens to us. But our Lord is asking us to go even deeper with today’s remarkably blunt gospel.
I’m reminded by C.S. Lewis’ line in Mere Christianity: “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” This gospel prompts us to reflect on the areas where we have not let Christ into our lives.
Where do we rebel? What is causing us to sin—to distrust God and his plan for us? Our fallen nature inclines us to be self-seeking, to pursue fleeting goods like career, status, wealth, and pleasure as ultimate ends. What is preventing us from looking outside of ourselves in living the life of self gift that Christ calls us to? Most of what prevents us is sin: envy, greed, anger, gluttony, impurity, sloth, and pride. These aren’t just rules for bad behavior—they are guideposts that enable us to love. God, in his infinite mercy, calls us back into his loving arms by sending his Son to heal us from our fallen selves.
As we approach Lent, let us consider asking God for the little ways we can put his will before our own.
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
Venerable Henriette Díaz DeLille is one of six Black Americans, including Julia Greeley and Venerable Pierre Toussaint, who is on the path towards officially being recognized as saints in the Roman Catholic Church. Ven. Henriette does not yet have an official feast day, so she is featured here today in celebration of Black History Month.
Mother Henriette was the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family in the city of New Orleans. She was born in 1813, to a mother who was a free woman of color, Marie-Josèphe. Her mother lived with a man named Jean-Baptiste, in what was known as the plaçage system. Through the plaçage system, white men lived in common-law—as opposed to civil or sacramental—marriages with women of color. Henriette grew up with her siblings in New Orleans' French Quarter. Her mother raised them Roman Catholic, and educated Henriette to be an accomplished young woman, in preparation for her own marriage to a wealthy patron. But Henriette had different plans for herself. She wanted to bring education to the poor girls of New Orleans and began teaching children around the city when she was still a teenager.
In 1835, Henriette's mother had a nervous breakdown, and Henriette inherited all her mother's assets. Henriette set aside enough money to continue caring for her mentally ill mother and then sold all of her mother's remaining property. With the proceeds of this sale, Henriette began her own religious congregation, which she named the Sisters of the Presentation, later renamed the Sisters of the Holy Family. The Sisters of the Holy Family, to this day, operate schools, nursing homes, and retirement communities for those in need throughout the Southern USA.
Henriette DeLille died in 1862, in the midst of the civil war. Her cause for canonization was opened in 1988, and Pope Benedict XVI declared her "venerable" on March 27, 2010.
Venerable Henriette Díaz DeLille, American witness to holiness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Henriette Díaz DeLille is in the public domain. Last accessed December 6, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
