Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 12, 2025
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
“Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
“What was your perception of God as a child?” I sat back in my seat in the classroom, unsure of what to say. I was among 18 other adult students who came from a diverse range of countries and faith backgrounds, pursuing Montessori training in Italy. Though we’d sat in this room together for months, we’d never discussed matters of faith.
One by one, my classmates responded; several described childhood memories of fearing God. They had been told that God was always watching and that God knew everything. They felt on guard and uneasy with this omnipresent arbiter. As my turn to respond grew closer, I recalled the line from today’s gospel passage, “Even all the hairs of your head are counted,” and I was lucky enough to remember a different experience of God—one yoked with love rather than fear.
I am very drawn to the image of an all-knowing God. To know that someone has counted all the grains of sand and all the hairs on my head is both reassuring and exhilarating. There is a deep security and love to be found there.
When Jesus tells us three times in this passage not to be afraid, there is a distinction being drawn. He reminds us not to be afraid of other people or the things of this world, but also raises an uncomfortable point about denying us in front of his heavenly Father should we deny him.
There might be something to having a little healthy fear (as they say), but we often inflate our fears, misplacing them in our attempts to simplify and make sense of the world we live in now. We should be afraid not of earthly matters, but only of ignoring the one who knows and loves us for eternity.
Prayer
Almighty God, we are humbled as we ponder the mystery of your love for us. Open our eyes and our hearts to see you in the childlike and the wise, to know you in the stranger and the outcast, to love you in the poor and the needy. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
When Jesus was carrying his cross on the way to his death on Golgotha, a woman named Veronica wiped his face with her veil. An image of Jesus’ face is said to have remained on the cloth.
The story of Veronica and her veil is one of the most famous Christian legends. In the early Church, many people were motivated to find and honor relics of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The veil with Jesus’ face was called a vera icon—a true icon, or true image—to distinguish it from other relics, and this is perhaps where Veronica’s name comes from. Stories about this woman arose to fill in the gaps—some have her as the wife of a Roman officer who was moved with compassion to comfort Jesus; others have her as Jesus’ friend, Martha; or the wife of Zaccheus; or the woman who was healed from her bleeding when she touched Jesus’ cloak.
That a woman filled with compassion wiped the face of Jesus on his way to his death could very well have happened, but we know very little else for certain. St. Veronica is depicted in several places on campus, most often as a figure in the stations of the cross, as in this sixth station from the Basilica. She is the patron saint of photography.
The veil venerated as the original is in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, gave a gift to Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., when he left France to establish a university on the American frontier in northern Indiana: a depiction of the face of Jesus from Veronica’s veil. This image was venerated by the Holy Cross community that lived in the Log Chapel during the first years of Notre Dame, and now stands in the Basilica.
St. Veronica, you were the compassionate woman who comforted Jesus on his way to his death—pray for us!
