Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 7, 2023
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.”
I grew up in a conservative Christian family. When I was in fourth grade my parents began homeschooling. Systematic theology came in tenth grade. Combined with my natural wiring as a perfectionist, I came out of childhood with the functional belief that what made me all right was knowing and doing the right things.
Much later, I realized that while I knew a lot about God, I didn’t know him very well at all—and I wasn’t much like him in my own spirit. I had treated my family’s traditions like the commandments of God.
Many, including Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, have said that whatever gives us security and well-being is our functional god. In today’s gospel, Jesus is saying to the Pharisees and scribes, “Would the real god in your lives please stand up!” We always have the best intentions in setting aside God’s commandments in favor of our wisdom, but we make ourselves god in the process. And idols always end up disappointing us.
Failure and pain eventually got my attention and helped me to seek something more. A beloved priest guided me to a discipline of contemplative prayer. In the presence of God, I experienced a Father who adored me. I experienced freedom from judgment. My identity was not that I was right but that I was God’s kid. He absolutely loved me. Not even my failures could affect that identity.
At some point, we are all tempted to trust our own way. But St. Augustine said most famously that only God can truly satisfy. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Prayer
God, bring our hearts close to you. There is much in this world that makes us feel steady and in control, but we know that ultimately our strength will fail and our grasp on the things in our lives will not stand the test of time. Only you, Lord, are unmoving, solid and sure.
And yet, you give us an example that is flexible and open, a witness that loves through thick and thin and will not become calcified or rigid. Soften our hearts to love in that way and bring our hearts close to you. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Eugénie Smet was born on March 25, 1825, the third of six children of Henri Smet in Lille, in the north of France.
Eugénie was a bright, lively child who was deeply in love with her faith from a young age.
She was filled with great concern for the souls in Purgatory since the image of the suffering in Purgatory smote her heart.
As Victor Hugo charts in Les Miserables, the France in which Eugénie was living was a time of great misery and poverty in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1848. Eugénie, however, safely ensconced in the boarding school at Sacré-Coeur in Lille, remained unaware of these great sufferings.
Slowly, she began to minister to the poor around her in her small French village of Loos. She asked her father for permission to take the fallen fruit from his orchard and give it to the hungry of the village.
The Catholic Church, formerly very influential in France before the revolutions, had become a remnant of its former self. The Church was rebuilding itself by reaching out to the poor and offering material, charitable assistance. Eugénie threw herself into this work of charity and into the sacramental life of the Church. She began to attend Mass daily and dedicated her life to God.
Interestingly, her greatest efforts of aid were directed to the poor who were not physically present in France. For example, she assisted the bishop in raising money for missions in China, and she held the strong belief that the souls in Purgatory were in great need of prayers.
Eugénie felt the call to create a religious order that would dedicate itself solely to praying for these poor suffering souls. As Eugénie prayed and sought the necessary permissions to create her order, she received great encouragement from St. John Vianney, which she took as a sign to continue. Eugénie met with Abbé Largentier, a priest in Paris who had started a small community dedicated to praying for souls in Purgatory.
Eugénie was hopeful Abbé Largentier could help her begin a religious order of sisters to pray for souls in purgatory, but Abbé Largentier insisted that Eugénie’s order could only succeed by starting a school. Eugénie was dissatisfied with this, and she prayed for direction. In 1856, she found a house in Paris that was for rent, and she persuaded the owner to let the house to her, despite having no liquid assets.
Eugénie took the name Mary of Providence and she became the head of the community, The Helpers of the Holy Souls. The Helpers began to go out into the suffering community around them and prayed with and cared for the men and women in the inner city of Paris who suffered from alcoholism, abandonment, and great physical and mental duress. The Helpers offered up their charity work for the souls in Purgatory, thus hoping to alleviate two forms of suffering at once. Their rule was formally accepted in 1859.
Eugénie’s order was bursting with new vocations, and she opened several other houses. In 1867, a brave cohort of thirty sisters traveled to China to begin a house of Helpers there.
Eugénie died on February 7, 1871, in Paris. Her movement has spread throughout the world and continues to minister to the souls in the Body of Christ—both those on earth and those who have departed this world.
Blessed Eugénie Smet, helper of all Christian souls—pray for us!
Image Credit: Image of Blessed Eugénie via Society of Helpers UK