Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 17, 2019
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
In this Gospel, Jesus challenges us to take our faith lives beyond a structured following of the commandments. He invites us, like the rich man, to let go of our material goods and use them to praise God and help others.
This reminds me of the example that my host mom, Naty, set this past semester during my four-month stay in Puebla, Mexico. An extremely hardworking single mother, Naty would spend a large part of her time gathering and preparing items for our dinner. She never failed to create something delicious, and she introduced me and the other Notre Dame student she was hosting to new Mexican cuisine almost every night. After each meal, I’d turn to Naty and say “Gracias, Naty” and each time she’d respond, “Gracias a Dios” and gesture to heaven. Sometimes, she’d add, “In this house, we are blessed to have full stomachs and food to eat, but there are many around us who don’t have food on their tables. Let’s ask God to help them as God has helped us.”
The rich young man’s monetary wealth keeps him from a closer relationship with God, because he cannot let go of it to create space for Our Lord in his heart. But for my host mother, the ability to give away the blessings that she has received is the wealth that brings her happiness. Naty’s example serves as a daily reminder to me that we are not to hold onto what we are given in this world for ourselves, but rather count all that we receive as blessings from God and share them with others.
Prayer
Protect us, Lord, from thinking that our healing depends on the strength and frequency of our prayers. Help us remember and proclaim to the world by our lives that through your Son you will it now and always that we be made and remain clean of heart and spirit. We make this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Anthony the Abbot is the famous father of monasticism in the Church—he took the Gospel literally and gave everything away to seek God in prayer.
Anthony was born in Egypt in 251, and when his parents died when he was about 20 years old, he assumed responsibility for the family’s 300 acres and for the care of his sister.
One day at Mass, he heard the words of Jesus proclaimed from this Gospel passage: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). The passage moved him to action, and he walked out of the Church at that moment and gave away all of his property except what he and his sister needed for sustenance.
Later, he heard Jesus’ words from this passage: “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil” (Mt 6:34). He immediately gave away the rest of their property and entrusted his sister to the care of a convent. He began a simple life on the outskirts of town, embracing only prayer, fasting, and manual labor.
When he was thirty-five, he moved even further out of town to live alone in an abandoned fort. He received rations of bread only a few times a year and spoke to people through a crack in the wall. By this time, he was becoming well-known for his faithfulness and wisdom and people sought him out for counsel and healing.
Feeling disturbed by the crowds who were seeking him out, he went deep into the desert, where he lived by a small spring of water. His life took on a rhythm of prayer and work, a pattern that continues to sustain monastic communities today. Soon, hundreds of people followed his example by going into the desert to live an ascetical life of prayer, and they began to loosely congregate into communities.
During his time in the desert, Anthony became friends with St. Paul the Hermit, whose feast day fell two days ago. The two friends are depicted in murals that face one another in the Basilica, and they are also shown receiving bread from a bird in this woodcut from the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Relics of both of them stand in the reliquary chapel.
Anthony died at the age of one hundred and five. St. Athanasius, who knew Anthony and wrote his story, said, "Anthony was not known for his writings nor for his worldly wisdom, nor for any art, but simply for his reverence toward God." He is depicted here with a book of Scripture that is aflame because God’s word sparked a fire in him to devote his whole life to God.
St. Anthony the Abbot, who sought perfection by giving away everything in order to seek treasure in heaven—pray for us!
Image credit: Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), St. Anthony Visits St. Paul in the Wilderness, ca. 1503, woodcut. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art: Acquired with funds provided by the Humana Endowment for American Art, 1991.001.157.