Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 4, 2019
After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
“”Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.””
At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,
“”This man is blaspheming.””
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
“”Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins””–
he then said to the paralytic,
“”Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.””
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.
On Sundays, I attend Mass at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kansas City, where the preaching often touches upon the message of Christ’s merciful love. The parish began praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet immediately following Mass in response to the Columbine shooting twenty years ago and has continued to pray it after every Mass since.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals and forgives the paralytic. Although primarily concerned with spiritual healing, Jesus promises the man physical healing, since Jewish tradition believed that sickness was the physical result of sin. Jesus declares, “the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” and exercises this authority when he says to the paralytic, “Take comfort, my child, your sins are forgiven.” The passage concludes by telling us that “the crowds…glorified God who had given such authority to men.”
We have been given a great gift in the sacrament of Confession. Through the priest, an instrument of the Lord’s merciful love, God seeks the lost, heals our wounds, and welcomes us back into intimate friendship.
As human beings, we often have an aversion to receiving this gift of mercy. We want to be loved for our intelligence, beauty, or talents. But Divine Love enters our brokenness and loves us in our weakness. Each time we open ourselves to mercy and allow the Lord to reconcile us with the Church in the sacrament of forgiveness, we receive grace so that, like the paralytic, we may follow Jesus’ invitation to rise and go home. With renewed strength in our healed weakness, we continue on pilgrimage toward our heavenly homeland.
Prayer
God of all nations and father of the human family, we give thanks for the blessings we enjoy in the United States of America, especially our freedom. We ask for your protection and guidance for public servants and all of those who work for justice and peace in this nation and around the world. Heal us from our differences and unite us, O Lord, with a commitment to achieve liberty and justice for all people, especially those who are most vulnerable. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Pier Giorgio Frassati was an extraordinary, Catholic young man who immersed himself in the struggle for human dignity that defined the 20th century. When he died at the age of 24, the streets were flooded with people who mourned his early death, and it was the poor people whom he served who took up the cause of his canonization.
He was born in 1901 in Turin, Italy, to a wealthy and prestigious family who owned a newspaper; his father was named Italian ambassador to Germany. Pier was an average student and an excellent athlete. His passions included mountain climbing and playing practical jokes—his many friends called him "the Terror.”
As a young man, he threw himself into social action on behalf of the Catholic faith: he served the poor, prayed, and built community. Pier gave his efforts to a number of groups who worked for justice and spread Eucharistic piety and Marian devotion. Pier would give away any spending money he had—he would even offer his fare for the train to a poor person and would walk home instead.
He started a newspaper that took seriously the principles in Pope Leo XIII’s famous encyclical about the dignity of human labor and the rights of workers, Rerum Novarum. “Charity is not enough,” he would say. “We need social reform.”
When Church leaders organized a demonstration in Rome against fascism, he helped lead the crowd. Police began to suppress the protest with violence and knocked the lead banner from someone’s hands. Pier grabbed the banner and, holding it higher, used the pole to fend off other attacks. He and other demonstrators were arrested. He could have received special treatment because of his father’s position, but he refused and stayed with his friends in jail.
One night after his release, fascist supporters broke into his family’s house and tried to attack Pier and his father, but Pier repelled them and chased them out into the street with his bare hands.
He died on this date in 1925 after contracting an illness from his efforts serving the poor and sick. When his tomb was moved to the cathedral in Turin in 1981, it was discovered that no decay had corrupted his body.
Pope St. John Paull II beatified Pier Giorgio Frassati in 1990, and called him "the Man of Eight Beatitudes." “By his example he proclaims that a life lived in Christ's Spirit, the Spirit of the Beatitudes, is ‘blessed,’ and that only the person who becomes a man or woman of the Beatitudes can succeed in communicating love and peace to others,” the pope said at his beatification Mass. “He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people.”
Pope Leo XIV canonized Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati together on September 7, 2025.
Pier’s story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, you were the young man who fought fascism and poverty with your bare hands—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.