Daily Gospel Reflection

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February 7, 2024

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Mk 7:14-23
Listen to the Audio Version

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Reflection

Andrew Dotterweich '71
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In the 1970s, popular comedian Flip Wilson had a character named Geraldine Jones. Whenever Geraldine was caught doing something wrong, she denied responsibility, claiming “The devil made me do it!” It became a national catchphrase.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is frustrated. He “summoned the crowd again.” It’s as if he is keeping them after school. He reframes and confirms the greatest commandment. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” They still don’t seem to get it.

Jesus wants us to get it. It is important. “Hear me, all of you, and understand.“ He has to explain it again to the apostles. “Are even you likewise without understanding?” He wants us to understand. Sin comes from the heart. It comes from our will. The devil can’t make us sin. We choose it. We will it from our lack of love.

When we deliberately miss Mass on Sunday, we choose to give priority in our hearts to something other than God. We can’t use the excuse, “The kid’s sports schedules made me do it.” C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”

Let us pray we can surrender our wills and be among those who say to God, “Thy will be done.”

Prayer

Rev. Louis Delfra, C.S.C.

Lord Jesus, you teach us the way of the pure of heart, that we might see God more clearly, and so love God more fully. Help us to overcome the weakness and sin in our lives that prevent us from loving you and others with all our hearts. Give us patience, perseverance, and confidence in your loving mercy for those sinful habits and behaviors that we find particularly difficult to overcome. Help us to know that your love for us is greater than our capacity to sin. Amen.

Saint of the Day

Blessed Eugénie Smet

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