Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
January 23, 2020
Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.
Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.
“You are the Son of God!”
We seldom ponder the second person of the Trinity as a reality in our daily lives with his potential to cure and heal, as he did amongst the crowds in Galilee. God incarnate amongst us is a beautiful reality to contemplate, but it is not easy to let this reality shape our daily lives.
As a counselor at a pregnancy resource center, the Women’s Care Center, the heart of my job is to see Christ in those I serve. He dwells not only in the unborn child, but in the women and their families who are confronted with the challenge of a new life amidst often heart-wrenchingly difficult circumstances. Our main task at the Women’s Care Center is to “make him known” by recognizing that he dwells within even those who are seemingly unloveable. This is the great challenge of our lives: to see Jesus in those the world has forsaken.
Christ calls every single one of us to re-enact the healing and curing of this gospel every day of our lives by recognizing his presence in every human person. In advocating for respect for all life, from conception to natural death, Christians are to be a source of God’s mercy and healing, especially for those most affected by the culture of death.
As we take a few moments today to reverence life may our vision be directed towards more than just political gains. Let us look to a higher, supernatural vision: the fullness of love and mercy incarnate in the Son, as shown in this gospel. Our goal should be, fundamentally, to make Christ known and, in doing so, to allow the world to rediscover his presence in each of us.
Prayer
Lord, in you we trust, and you will not allow this trust to be in vain. You rescue us from stumbling so that here on earth we will walk in the light of your hope and in the strength of your grace. May we always through faith hear your voice and be ready to do your will. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Marianne Cope, known as St. Marianne of Moloka’i for her work with the lepers of Hawaii, was canonized on Oct. 21, 2012, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Marianne was born in Germany in 1838, and one year after her birth, her family emigrated to Utica, New York. She attended her parish school until eighth grade when her father fell ill and she went to work in a factory to support the family. Her father died in 1862, and, when her siblings were all old enough to help support the family, she left her home to pursue a religious vocation.
Marianne joined an order of Franciscans and spent time educating children of immigrant families. She also helped open two hospitals in the area.
By 1883, Marianne had become Superior General of her order. She received a letter from the King of Hawaii asking for help for those who were quarantined on the leper colony of Moloka’i. The king had asked some fifty other religious organizations for aid and had been declined by all of them.
Marianne accepted the request and took six sisters with her to Hawaii. There, she managed a hospital for victims of leprosy and established another. She cared not only for those with leprosy, but for those impacted by the disease: orphans whose parents had the disease, and clergy who contracted leprosy while working with patients.
She worked tirelessly for these people, even into her old age. Even when Marianne grew old and needed a wheelchair to get around, she still managed to support the lepers there. Despite her many years in close contact with this highly contagious disease, Marianne never contracted leprosy herself. She lived to the ripe old age of eighty, finally passing away in August 1918. Soon after her death, several miracles were attributed to her intercession. St. Marianne Cope is the patron saint of those suffering from leprosy and HIV/AIDS.
St. Marianne Cope, you spent your life caring for the outcast lepers on Moloka’i—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Marianne Cope is in the public domain. Last accessed November 15, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
