Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 13, 2022
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
At the end of his life, St. Thomas Aquinas said, “The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me…I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw.”
As Jesus cautions in today’s gospel, it is not through learning or wisdom that we can know God. We could plumb the depths of philosophy like Aquinas and still fall short of knowing God because God reveals himself through something much simpler: the childlike disposition of love.
Blessed Basil Moreau wisely cautioned that “the mind will not be educated at the expense of the heart.” He knew that even if the Congregation of Holy Cross built towering educational institutions, imparting only intellectual knowledge would fall short of their mission. To know God is not simply to understand divine nature or the doctrine of the Church but to love God.
This love is the love of a child for a perfect Father. It is not proud and boastful. It is humble and trusting. It is quiet and good. It is a love formed in the silence of prayer and invisible acts of charity.
Recently, I experienced this love during our second daughter’s First Holy Communion. I was struck by her anticipation before and her joy after she received the Body of Christ. Her eight-year-old mind never absorbed the metaphysical argument for transubstantiation, and it needn’t have. She knew she was receiving Jesus because she trusted him, his Word, and loved him. He revealed himself to her directly through her heart.
So today, let us quiet our minds, quick and bright as they may be, and ask God to reveal himself in the silence and simplicity of our love for him. Let us look to God with the trusting faith of a child, cultivating our love for God above all else!
Prayer
Loving God, you have called us by name to continue Christ’s mission of reconciliation and healing. Give us patience in times of challenge, hope in places of suffering. May we recognize your kingdom in our midst, near to us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Henry was the most important ruler of his time, and is remembered for his virtue and his careful tending of the Church and his people.
He was born in 972 to royalty in Bavaria, and was well-educated. At the age of 30, he was chosen emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. As emperor, he was surrounded at all times by honor, power, and wealth, and he fought pride and selfishness with constant attention to prayer, which gave him humility. He understood that his position was an opportunity to serve God and the people he led.
Still, he was an effective and savvy politician, and expanded the territory and influence of the empire. Along the way, he helped further establish the Church, restoring churches and monasteries in regions where it had been neglected. He wanted to spread the faith and support the poor, and the institutions he founded ensured that this work would continue past his own lifetime.
In one of his excursions against the Greeks, he fell sick and took rest at Monte Cassino, where it is said that he was cured through the intercession of St. Benedict. The illness left Henry partly disabled for the rest of his life.
Much of what has been passed down to us about Henry has been exaggerated because of his position, but it seems that he took as much care to govern himself as the empire. He helped in efforts to reform and renew the Church, and is considered the most important ruler in Europe at the beginning of the 11th century.
St. Henry’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Henry, you were the king who governed yourself with as much care as you did the empire—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Henry is in the public domain. Last accessed March 20, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
