Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 6, 2019
The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
During my Ethics and Imagination course at Notre Dame, I encountered Josef Pieper’s idea of the authentically Christian notion of the “festival” as an event completely uninhibited in the breadth, depth and scope of its merriment. Christians after all have the greatest reasons in history to rejoice: the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord!
I spent three years with an order of religious sisters, the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, in Rome and Nairobi. The sisters inspired me with their way of life in many ways, particularly in how they changed their routines both during Advent and Lent and again during Christmas and Easter. During Advent and Lent, for example, the sisters did not tour the city, shortened phone conversations with loved ones, and even put less spice and salt in food.
All of these self-denials might seem like masochistic or anachronistic to our society preoccupied with immediate gratification. But the sacrifices during those penitential seasons were profoundly enlightening.
After fasting for the three days of the Sacred Triduum, waking up on Easter Sunday felt tangibly different. The Bridegroom’s presence filled every heart with gladness and stomach with richness. My 40 days of “no” to sweets made the Pascal sweetness in the air and in our food a vivid symbol of the “new wine” of Jesus’s love for me.
Seasons of sacrifice invite us to convert and to grow, and, ultimately, self-sacrifice seeks to render us new—to become those fresh wineskins, and to give the new wine—Christ—a welcoming place in which to dwell.
We prepare ourselves with fasting and denial to drink the sweet wine of Christ himself. Thus, we are made “fresh” to receive him in our hearts, on our tongues, in our neighbor and in ourselves. Our festival is now, and God is with us!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, in Christ’s presence is endless joy. He is the bridegroom and the Church his bride. Though the risen Christ is with us always, we live in that age before his final manifestation and coming in glory. Give us faith and hope as our hearts yearn with spousal love for the bridegroom for when he will come in glory and we partake of the heavenly wedding feast. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Maria Goretti captured the imaginations of people when she died defending herself from sexual assault. Her influence from heaven worked miracles, even converting her attacker.
She was born in 1890 in a small village in Italy. Her father was a farm laborer, and the family moved to a number of different places to follow work. When he died, Maria’s mother did what she could to take on his workload, but struggled. Every penny, every scrap of food had to be carefully conserved.
When she was 12, Maria was approached in her cottage by a 19-year-old young man who lived nearby named Alexander. When she refused his advances, he pulled her into a bedroom and shut the door. She condemned his actions as sinful, then Alexander began to strangle her. She continued to struggle against him, and he stabbed her 14 times before running away.
She was taken to the hospital, and it was immediately apparent that she would not survive. Her mother waited at her bedside with other family friends as Maria suffered. She forgave Alexander and asked God’s forgiveness for him before dying the next day.
Alexander was sentenced to 30 years in prison under hard labor. For many years, he grew only more bitter and cruel. One night, he had a vision in which he saw Maria gathering white lilies in a garden. She approached him and offered the flowers to him. When he accepted them, each one turned into a white flame.
Alexander sensed her forgiveness, which changed him. He finished his sentence with hope and optimism and was released three years early. The first thing he did when he was freed was to visit Maria’s mother and beg her forgiveness.
Maria’s story was told throughout the world, and people all over began to pray for her and to ask for her intercession. Miracles were attributed to her help, and her cause for canonization was introduced. Alexander testified with his story as part of her cause.
Her mother, 82, was present at her beatification, along with three of her siblings. The pope named Maria a modern-day St. Agnes. She was canonized in 1950 in front of the largest crowd ever gathered to witness a canonization.
St. Maria Goretti is considered a martyr because she died in defense of Christian virtue, and she is the patron saint of victims of sexual assault. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and her story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Maria Goretti, patron saint of victims of sexual assault—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Maria Goretti is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.