Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
July 15, 2022
Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.
His disciples were hungry
and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.”
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did
when he and his companions were hungry,
how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering,
which neither he nor his companions
but only the priests could lawfully eat?
Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
An RA during the three days of my Frosh-O shared, “You’re going to meet your bridesmaids, husband, and best friends here.” I remember her words filling me with excitement and high hopes.
And over my first year, everything seemed to go according to plan. I became close with the girls in my section of the dorm. My closest friend and I excitedly decided to room together for the sophomore year. Shortly into the fall, however, this friend and I had a falling out. As time passed, it became clear that we could be pleasant to each other, but the deeper friendship could not be recovered.
I met other wonderful people at ND in so many ways—time abroad in Rome, doing plays, and volunteering. Yes, I did indeed meet my future husband, but losing that first friendship sent ripples through my time as an undergraduate that still bothered me.
I soon realized I needed to reconcile with her in my heart. I didn’t know how to do that. It felt presumptuous to seek to forgive her as if that meant I didn’t acknowledge my fault too. Ruminating on it only made me feel worse. Somehow the Lord revealed that I needed to pray for her, but how?
A simple intention emerged: “Lord, thy will be done in her life.” My heart said, “Lord, I don’t feel loving and forgiving. I know that you love and forgive her and will her good. Would you do those things for me?” I prayed this prayer a lot. And slowly, very slowly, God’s grace worked healing in my heart.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” It is not easy to give mercy to those who have hurt us. By ourselves, we may be unable to forgive and let go entirely. Yet when we ask, God will supply the merciful love we need.
Prayer
My God, Our Father, may your grace always remind us that we must learn to see our lives as invitations to show mercy and to give our love. Whatever we are obliged to do or expected to do matters less than what we are given to do by your inspiration over and beyond the minimum of the “letter of the law.” We pray with the Church through Christ our Lord.
Saint of the Day
St. Bonaventure is one of the greatest minds the Church ever produced, and he seamlessly combined a love for truth with love for God.
He was born in Italy in 1221 and became a Franciscan. He was educated at the University of Paris, and went on to teach Scripture and theology there for nearly a decade before taking on leadership of his own order.
Bonaventure dedicated even more time to prayer than he did to his study, and people could feel a deep, inward peace about him. He was always cheerful, and once said, “A spiritual joy is the greatest sign of the divine grace dwelling in a soul.”
He was ordained a priest, and wrote a number of mystical works about prayer, poverty, and the path to holiness. Bonaventure wrote with such devotion and love that his works “warmed the heart” said one scholar of his time. “Whoever would be both learned and devout, let him read the works of Bonaventure.”
He was a concise thinker who could strike to the heart of the matter. He frequently meditated on the joy of heaven, and his writing awoke in readers a desire for union with God. “God, all the glorious souls, and the whole family of the eternal King wait for us and desire that we should be with them,” Bonaventure wrote. “Shall not we desire above all things to be admitted into their happy company?”
He wrote of the perfection of Christian life—not by renouncing the world like a monk, but by simply doing ordinary things of our daily life very well. “The perfection of a religious person is to do common things in a perfect manner,” he wrote. “A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.”
Bonaventure is called the second founder of the Franciscans because he was able to guide the community through important matters of interpretation about the way of life they should lead. He wrote an authoritative biography of Francis.
The pope named Bonaventure a cardinal and when the saint received news of the appointment, he was washing dishes in a convent where he was staying. The messengers were carrying the red hat of a cardinal (shown in this image from a Basilica mural), but his hands were greasy from the dishes. He had them hang it in a tree outside until he was finished, then he went and put it on, accepting the office.
When the pope called a council to discuss the unity of the Church with Greek faithful who had split from Rome, he asked Bonaventure to lead it. Bonaventure led a successful council, but died during the celebrations.
The pope preached at his funeral and said, “No one ever met Bonaventure who did not find a great regard and affection for him. Even strangers wanted to follow his advice, just from hearing him speak. He was gentle, courteous, humble, pleasing to everyone, compassionate, prudent, chaste, and adorned with all virtues.”
Bonaventure has been declared a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor" after the angels who are called the “burning ones” in Scripture—his works communicated his burning love of God.
The relics of St. Bonaventure rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and the statue of him in his Franciscan habit (shown above) stands on Alumni Hall.
St. Bonaventure, you awoke in people a desire for the joy of heaven—pray for us!