Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 6, 2022
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Once, not so long ago, a young man had decided to take his own life. He left his home and started making his way toward a bridge. “But,” he told himself, “if anyone says hello to me on the way, I won’t go through with it.” Thank God someone did just that, and the young man lived to tell the tale.
With nations at war, a pandemic lingering on, and mass shootings occurring nearly weekly, I sometimes think, “What can I do in the face of so much suffering? Who am I to stop it?” I pray for it all to end, but may do no more than that.
Today’s gospel makes it clear that Jesus wants us to be more than admiring bystanders. He calls each of us by name, as he called the Twelve, to play our part in ushering in the kingdom of God.
In the preceding chapters, the disciples have witnessed Jesus cleanse a leper, heal people who are ill and paralyzed, cast out demons, and raise a girl from the dead. Then he turns to the disciples and tells them it is their turn to do the same. “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you.” Yes, us.
Jesus also clarifies in a later verse, they will do these things by a power not their own but by the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. Jesus made good on his promise.
These are not mere stories of the past. God invites us all to participate in the work of the Kingdom. Indeed, there are those among us today who continue to heal and even raise the dead in Jesus’ name. The rest of us might start with something as simple as saying hello to someone we pass on the street.
Prayer
Lord God, every time we read the names of the Twelve disciples, we wonder what it will be like to meet them all some day in heaven. Though we know a little about some of them — Peter denied you three times, Matthew was a tax collector, Judas betrayed you, they were fishermen — we don’t really know them. Some day we will know them. Help us to not be afraid of the truth that each day we are one day closer to our heavenly homeland. And send us out, Lord, to witness to the Kingdom, to preach the Kingdom. May our words and actions be a sign to all the world that your Kingdom is here among us and yet to come. We ask this through Christ our Lord. 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 as well, 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 as a modern-day St. Agnes. She was canonized in 1950 in front of the largest crowd ever gathered to witness a canonization.
Maria Goretti is considered a martyr because she died in defense of Christian virtue, and she is 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.