Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 4, 2023
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
In today’s gospel, Christ presents himself to his disciples in an astounding way—his mastery over creation. Jesus provides the Twelve with a theophany of marvelous proportion, such that the disciples can only marvel: “What sort of a man is this?”
In my life, I have been praying with this question of the disciples, and like the Twelve, I, too, have experienced the Lord profoundly through his creation.
In the summer following my sophomore year at Notre Dame, I was blessed to work at Camp Wojtyla, a Catholic outdoor camp in the heart of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. As I immersed myself in creation, sleeping under the stars, receiving the Eucharist amongst the mountains, and hiking on the same peaks that Saint John Paul II once visited, I saw the Lord vividly; I witnessed the goodness, majesty, and beauty that make our God who he is.
Fast forward two years, and I am now a recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame, beginning my career in a new state far from my home, my alma mater, and my beloved Camp Wojtyla.
Although not as threatening as the storms in today’s gospel, the many unknowns and uncertainties within this season of my life can be unsettling, like the rising waves that prompted the Twelve to turn to Christ in their boat. What sort of man is this that the disciples turn to, though?
This is the son of the living God, the one I could easily see in the beauty of Camp Wojtyla, and the man I continue to meet in the Eucharist. Today, as we ask ourselves, “What sort of a man is this?” may we recognize that this same God is with us, and he alone will bring about a great calm that is the peace of Christ.
Prayer
There are times, O Lord, when daily realities frustrate us. Sometimes one thing after another happens, and we feel overwhelmed. These are the times when we most yearn for your presence and your support, yet we don’t feel it or sense it. Please…..tell us what we can do! We need your help so much at those times. 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.”
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; illustration by Julie Lonneman and used with permission. His photograph is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, you were the young man who fought fascism and poverty with your bare hands—pray for us!