Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 6, 2021
The Apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
Today’s reading from the gospel of Mark anticipates the season of Lent, which will be upon us soon. Jesus says to the Apostles, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” In Lent, we remember when Jesus went to the desert by himself to prepare for his public ministry. It is a dramatic story, which we will hear in a few weeks, that recounts the prayer, fasting, and temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Ultimately, Jesus comes out of the desert stronger because of his faith and trust in the Father.
The entire Covid-19 pandemic has felt like something of a desert. We have felt isolated and depressed, or at least I have. There is so much that we’ve given up and, after sacrificing our big family holidays this winter, being in a big crowd like the one in today’s gospel actually sounds pretty good about now.
This reading shows us that the “deserted place” is not something to be avoided or feared. Jesus knows that the Apostles need a break from the crowds that are following him. In this pandemic, sometimes we feel like we are going through it alone, like Jesus alone in the desert. At other times, we realize that we are going through it with just those closest to us, like Jesus seeking a deserted place to regroup with his disciples.
Even Jesus had his bubble with his Apostles. Is Jesus part of our bubble? If he is, we will come out of this desert stronger than we were before.
Prayer
Dear Lord, as we go about our homes and work, let us bring your presence with us. Let us speak your peace, your grace, your mercy, and your perfect order to all we meet. Give us a fresh supply of strength to do our work. Let even our smallest accomplishments bring you glory. When we are confused, guide us. When we are burned out, infuse us with the light of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for being our source of life! Amen.
Saint of the Day
Though he is not considered a canonized saint by the Catholic church (nor is he currently being considered for canonization), Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C. was a remarkable man who was animated with a stubborn faith and missionary zeal. He founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842.
Father Sorin was born on this day in 1814, in Ahuillé, Mayenne, a small village in northwestern France. Ordained to the priesthood in 1838, he led a band of seven members of a newly formed religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross, to what was then mission territory on the Indiana frontier three years later. On Nov. 26, 1842, when he arrived at what is now the campus of Notre Dame, Father Sorin was 28 years old.
In his journal, Father Sorin described the only shelter then standing on the 524-acre site: “An old log cabin, 24 × 40 feet, the ground floor of which answered as a room for a priest, and the story above for a chapel for the Catholics of South Bend and the neighborhood, although it was open to all the winds.”
Undaunted by the cabin’s dilapidation, Father Sorin envisioned there what he soon began to build and to call “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” (the University of Our Lady of the Lake), insisting that the new school would become “one of the most powerful means for doing good in this country.”
The confidence of that pledge was tested on April 23, 1879, when a massive fire destroyed the Main Building and virtually the entire fledgling university. In what would become an iconic moment of Notre Dame’s history, Father Sorin addressed the stunned survivors of the catastrophe who had gathered a few days later in Sacred Heart Church.
“I came here as a young man and dreamed of building a great university in honor of Our Lady,” he told them. “But I built it too small, and she had to burn it to the ground to make the point. So, tomorrow, as soon as the bricks cool, we will rebuild it, bigger and better than ever.” The University reopened four months later.
During the years of his presidency at Notre Dame, Father Sorin discouraged public celebrations of his birthday, but did allow a public celebration of the feast of his patron, St. Edward the Confessor, on Oct. 13.
Father Sorin died in 1893, and is buried in the Holy Cross cemetery across St. Mary’s Lake from the Dome. Sorin College, home to about 150 men, was the first residence hall with private rooms; it was named after the founder when it was built in 1888.
In an audience with members of Notre Dame’s board of trustees, Pope Francis praised the University’s founder, saying that “the vision which guided Father Edward Sorin and the first religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross in establishing the University of Notre Dame du Lac remains, in the changed circumstances of the 21st century, central to the University’s distinctive identity and its service to the Church and American society.”
On the birthday of Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., let us pray for Notre Dame, that it might become a powerful means for good!