Daily Gospel Reflection

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January 30, 2025

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Mk 4:21-25
Listen to the Audio Version

Jesus said to his disciples,
“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,
and not to be placed on a lampstand?
For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible;
nothing is secret except to come to light.
Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.”
He also told them, “Take care what you hear.
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you,
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given;
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Reflection

Karen Flavin
ND Parent
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Does anybody use a flashlight anymore? The old stand-alone light source seems to be a relic from days gone by. Today, most folks take out their cell phones and use a light app.

In this gospel passage, when Jesus references a lamp, I picture a traditional lamp, like the one I have on my nightstand. But my four grandchildren, all under seven, absolutely love using a small flashlight when they are in bed at night. At their tender ages, they crave light to feel safe but are more likely to continue playing with their siblings instead of using it to help them sleep. Is this the joyful, childlike equivalent of being “in relationship with others” and shining our light to proclaim our faith?

At my age, which falls into the Medicare bracket, light is very important to me. The older I get, the more I need brighter lights to help me read anything and navigate my house in the wee hours of the morning as I stumble into the kitchen to start the coffee.

In this gospel, Jesus refers to a lamp on a stand because he wants his followers to be bold and courageous in proclaiming their faith. You can’t be those things if you are hiding at home. Jesus is telling us to “stand up” so we can be that light for others. We can illuminate a path for anyone who is in a dark place—anyone with a sense of hopelessness, fear, sadness, or loneliness,

When we reach out to others with gestures of kindness; when we text, email, or handwrite a letter; when we offer a smile to the cashier, uber driver, or weary mom with kids in the grocery cart; when we make sacrifices of time and attention, we are the light of Christ for others.

Let the light you shine be so brilliant that it guides all to Christ.

Prayer

Aaron Morris, C.S.C.

Heavenly Father, through the incarnation of your Son, the church bears the divine light of the anointed one. Let each of us bear the infinite measure: Christ alive in us. Overflowing with infinite grace, may we offer more than our life’s work. Give us courage to share the living Christ for all to see, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Saint of the Day

Blessed Margaret Ball

Blessed Margaret Ball was a wealthy laywoman in sixteenth-century Dublin who was arrested during a persecution of Catholics by her own son, who sent her to prison in Dublin Castle, where she eventually died.

Margaret Ball was born in 1515 in County Meath, which neighbors Dublin County, in Ireland’s eastern province of Leinster. Her family—the Berminghams—were originally from England, as their name suggests. They emigrated to Ireland and became landed Irish gentry when her father purchased a farm. The Berminghams were fairly politically active and staunch supporters of the Catholic cause as a Protestant government began to form.

In 1531, when she was sixteen, Margaret married Bartholomew Ball, a city councilman in Dublin. The Balls were a wealthy Dublin family and Bartholomew was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1553.

Margaret and Bartholomew had ten children, five of whom survived into adulthood, and lived comfortably in their fine home in the city. Margaret oversaw the education of not only her own children but of many other children throughout the city, holding classes for them in her home.

In 1558, when Elizabeth I ascended the throne of her two kingdoms of England and Ireland, she reversed her sister Mary I’s declaration of Catholicism as the state religion. Her Religious Settlement of 1558 declared the throne the head of the Church in England and decreed that all Elizabeth’s subjects attend worship at a Church of England, using the Book of Common Prayer, each Sunday. Obviously, then, attending a Catholic Mass was now illegal, which led to the arrest and persecution of Catholic clergy, religious sisters and brothers and lay Catholics.

During this tumultuous time, Margaret and Bartholomew provided a safe haven in Dublin for many priests.

Not all members of the Ball family were still committed to their Catholic faith. Margaret’s eldest son, Walter, for instance, embraced Elizabeth I's reversal. In 1580, he took over as Lord Mayor of Dublin and promptly arrested his sixty-five-year-old mother and had her carried to the dungeons beneath Dublin Castle. The rest of the family demanded Margaret’s release, but Walter stubbornly refused, unless Margaret took the Oath of Supremacy which recognized Elizabeth I as head of the Church.

Walter’s younger brother, Nicholas, brought his mother food and clothing and took care of her while she was in prison. Nicholas became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1582 after his brother was promoted to Commissioner of Ecclesiastical Causes. Nicholas could still not free his mother, despite his new power, as Walter had royal oversight over religious matters and would not allow him to release Margaret.

Margaret died in 1584, after enduring the rank air and damp cold of Dublin prisons with a strong spirit. All her property after her death still went to Walter, as she never once changed the terms of her will.

Margaret was beatified in September 1992 by Pope John Paul II, in a group of seventeen Irish martyrs.

The image above is a photo by Connell McCabe of a statue of Margaret and Blessed Francis Taylor (a martyr beatified by John Paul II in the same group as Margaret) that stands outside the St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin.

Blessed Margaret Ball, loving mother and brave martyr for the Catholic faith—pray for us!


Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Margaret Ball is available for use under a Creative Commons license. Last accessed November 15, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.