Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 6, 2021
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus,
and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke.
The crowds were amazed and said,
“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”
For many of us, the pandemic has brought about a renewed interest in many creative hobbies, including painting, writing, or gardening. This past year, I have spent many hours outside tending to my garden. Today I have an abundance of flowers blooming, but it did not begin this way.
When we moved into our home late last May, everything was growing. In fact, I could hardly tell where the grass ended and the weeds began! Dandelions, purslane, and clovers seemed to engulf the garden beds, and I was overwhelmed by the task ahead.
So I called my father, and he brought along my mother and uncle to help revive my garden. After hours of pulling weeds, tilling the soil, and mowing the grass, I could finally see a new yard taking shape. New plants like hostas, hydrangeas, and alliums started to appear before my eyes. All it took was some extra hands and a bit of hard work, and then my harvest began to bear fruit.
This gospel passage presents the striking images of the people being like “sheep without a shepherd” as well as a crop ready to be harvested. One might think that these troubled followers would not be worth Jesus’ time. And yet, he sees their true worth and communicates his desire to gather them to himself.
Christ’s call to his disciples is also the continual call of all Christians. God asks us to be laborers in some way, to see the brokenness in ourselves and others as opportunities for reconciliation and transformation. As we give our hands to the work that God has entrusted to us, even when the gardens of our lives seem beyond help, we will be amazed at the harvest produced.
How can we challenge ourselves to see things as God does, to remove the weeds of sin that restrain us, and to help one another as we labor together to harvest what the master has planted?
Prayer
Lord, forgive us for the times we think that you are not concerned about us or that you have forgotten us. The Gospel today reminds us that your heart was moved with pity for the crowds. In the same way your heart is always attentive to our needs. Thank you for being a shepherd to us. Help us, O Lord, to truly live the vocation that you call us to. Help us to know that all of us, because we are baptized, are called to be shepherds to your people. Thank you for this great privilege. We pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized seven new saints of the Church. In his stirring homily at the canonization Mass, Pope Francis invited the congregation: "Let us ask ourselves where we are in our story of love with God. Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him?" Each of the saints that were canonized on that day reveals, in their own unique way, his and her total dedication to the radical call of the Gospel to leave everything behind.
St. Nazaria Ignacia, faced many obstacles in trying to follow God's will for her life. Nazaria Ignacia was born on January 10, 1889, to a fairly wealthy family with many children in Madrid. When she was not even ten years old, as she received her First Communion, Nazaria heard Christ's voice call out to her: "You, Nazaria—follow me." From that moment on, Nazaria had an intense desire to join the religious life, which, one would imagine, would have delighted her parents. Her parents were neither thrilled nor delighted by her religious fervor, but rather, they were both frustrated and annoyed with Nazaria's piety. Her parents grounded the young Nazaria from going to Mass and prevented her from receiving sacraments.
As a young girl, Nazaria was sent to study in Seville, and her grandmother ensured that Nazaria was raised in the Catholic faith, was confirmed, and even encouraged her to become a third order Franciscan. When Nazaria's father emigrated to Mexico, Nazaria and several of her younger sisters moved in with her grandmother before joining him later in the New World. Her father allowed Nazaria to join a religious order once she arrived and Nazaria promptly entered the order of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in July of 1908. She was sent to Bolivia, and, despite a brief return to Spain for her novitiate, Nazaria lived in Bolivia as a Little Sister until 1925, when she began a new religious order with Filippo Cortesi.
Nazaria gathered together ten other women to found the Missionaries of the Crusade in Bolivia in December 1926. They received diocesan approval a few months later, and, when Nazaria traveled to Rome to meet Pope Pius XI in 1934, she received his blessing and praise for her work of founding the order. The Missionaries finally received papal approval from Pope Pius XII in 1947, after Nazaria's death.
Nazaria died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 14, 1943. Her order still operates throughout the Spanish-speaking world today, a living testament to Nazaria's great love for Christ and her desire to serve him wholeheartedly, with her whole life.
St. Nazaria Ignacia, you followed the voice of God wholeheartedly, despite many obstacles—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Nazaria Ignacia is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed March 19, 2025.