Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
January 27, 2020
The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”
And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
When I read the phrases “never have forgiveness” and “guilty of eternal sin,” my heart sinks. Jesus has my attention. I imagine myself as one of the scribes in this passage, asking myself “what did I do so wrong?” The scribes are trying to make sense of Jesus’ power. To them, he is just a regular guy who has no official religious authority, yet his miracles are drawing a huge following. The scribes are afraid: perhaps afraid that Jesus’s popularity will diminish their own, or perhaps afraid that he was leading others astray. Their fear leads them to skepticism, slander, and “blasphemies against the Holy Spirit”. They misattributed the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus as demonic in its origin.
Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes calls me to examine the times in my life when I have allowed fear and skepticism to warp my view of others’ good work. When have I felt so threatened that I have called good things evil? When have I failed to recognize the Holy Spirit’s work because it was done by someone from a different political party, a different social group, or a different faith tradition?
In this gospel, Jesus says that it is unforgivable blasphemy when we denigrate the good work that the Spirit is doing. These words challenge me to overcome my fear-driven skepticism and look for the Holy Spirit working in others, even in people and places I consider unlikely. I’m called to recognize the good fruits of the Spirit in others’ actions, even if they do not make sense to me. And at the very least, when I’m unsure if something is holy or evil, Jesus’ words call me to remember the Holy Spirit’s mystery, which defies my expectations.
Prayer
Dear Lord, increase our faith. Your promise is so amazing that sometimes we struggle to believe. You are with us even if we don’t feel your presence. Let us trust more in your Word than in our human senses. If you truly guide our every decision, every opportunity, every struggle, then ultimately all will be well, according to your will. We will hope in your promise, “Emmanuel, God is with us.”
Saint of the Day
St. Angela Merici was a laywoman in fifteenth-century Italy who revolutionized the education of women as well as religious life.
She was born in 1474, the younger of two girls. By the time Angela was 15, the sisters were orphaned and sent to live with an uncle. Angela was distraught when her older sister died suddenly without receiving a final anointing. This event sent Angela to prayer—she joined a group of laypeople who lived in the spirituality of St. Francis, and she prayed fervently for the soul of her sister. She eventually received a vision in which she saw her sister celebrating in heaven.
Angela was admired for her beauty, and people found her hair especially pretty. To divert attention from herself, Angela covered her hair in ashes.
When she was 20, her uncle died, and she returned to her family home. She saw a great need for Christian education for girls—at the time women were educated only if they were rich or if they became religious sisters. Angela, herself, had only received an education by her own hard work.
At the time, girls fell through cracks in the educational system because women were not allowed to be teachers. Unmarried women could not do their own work outside of the house, and nuns lived in cloisters and could not leave the convent.
In response, Angela turned her house into a school to teach girls in her city of Brescia. Other young women joined her there; she formed these teachers into a community dedicated to the education of young women, and their work began to spread. “You have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service,” she told her companions.
In 1524, she took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, she stopped in Crete and was suddenly struck blind. She continued on the pilgrimage, visiting all the sites as though she could see. When she was returning home, she stopped in Crete again, and her sight was restored while she was praying in front of a crucifix. For this reason, she is a patron saint of sick people and those who are disabled.
When the pope heard of the good work she was doing, he invited her to move to Rome. Angela saw this opportunity as a temptation to pride and decided to remain in Brescia with the community she had formed.
In 1534, she chose 12 of the women who shared her work and established a formal religious community, known as the Company of St. Ursula (now known as the Ursulines, or the Angelines). These sisters dedicated their lives to serving God and others but were not to remove themselves from the world, as cloistered orders do. The sisters would live celibate lives in their own homes.
When she died in 1540, there were 24 different communities of Ursuline sisters, and today these sisters lead educational institutions throughout the world. They were the first religious sisters to land in the New World when they arrived in Canada in 1639. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus, and her image appears in these stained glass windows in the Basilica.
St. Angela Merici, teacher of young women and patron saint of those who are disabled—pray for us!