Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
July 7, 2022
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;
no sack for the journey, or a second tunic,
or sandals, or walking stick.
The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,
and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
if not, let your peace return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words –
go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment
than for that town.”
Most of us appreciate clear instructions when given a task to complete. In this case, Jesus gives his apostles very clear instructions on beginning their ministry.
However, what is required of them would make any ordinary person feel overwhelmed: cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons. Shortly after, he tells them they’ll be sent out like sheep among the wolves! Did the Apostles question if they were up to all of the challenges?
This passage serves as a reminder that the Apostles, who had just begun their discipleship with Jesus at this point in Matthew’s Gospel, were just regular people like you and me. Yet we know that through the outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles could do all Christ instructed them to do, and more, in Jesus’ name. Luke later tells us so in the Acts of the Apostles.
If they, ordinary men whom Jesus called, could complete these miraculous tasks, we can do what he asks of us. At the very least, this means following Jesus’ explicit instructions to love God and our neighbor.
May we take heart, knowing that God provides the grace for us to fulfill our call to love just as the Apostles received what they needed to complete their miraculous ministries.
Prayer
Loving God, You call us your Beloved Sons and Daughters and by name. May we not be afraid or lack trust in letting Jesus heal what is broken in our mind, body or spirit. May Jesus lead us outside of ourselves to the immigrants, refugees, poor, imprisoned and homeless, seeing His compassion is for all of us. We ask this through Jesus the Shepherd and our Brother. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Maria Romero Meneses was a modern-day social reformer who brought about a “revolution of charity” in Costa Rica.
She was born in Nicaragua in 1902, one of eight children who grew up in an upper class family. Maria received a very good education at a school staffed by sisters in a religious community founded by St. John Bosco—they were known as the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians.
When she was 12 years old, Maria fell sick with rheumatic fever, and struggled all year to regain her health. She was completely paralyzed for six months, but was patient and prayerful in her suffering, which she saw as a gift from God. Doctors reported that her heart was damaged from the sickness, but she appealed to Our Lady, Help of Christians, and received some sort of assurance that she would be healed.
When a friend from school visited her, she said, “I know that the Blessed Virgin will cure me.” A few days later, she regained her health and returned to school, fully recovered.
A spiritual director helped her sort through and better understand the mystical experiences she was having, and she realized that she was being called to religious life. She joined the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians—the nuns who staffed her school—and closely followed the spirituality of John Bosco.
In 1931, she was sent to Costa Rica, where she taught at a school for girls from wealthy families. She also went into the poor neighborhoods to teach the faith there, and to help people acquire practical skills for work. Her example moved students at the school, and many girls joined her work to improve the lives of the poor.
Maria began to understand her purpose in life—to encourage social development by helping wealthy people see how they could change the lives of poor people. She gathered resources and established recreational centers and food distribution organizations. In 1961, she opened a school for poor girls; a few years later, she opened a clinic and supported it by recruiting doctors and finding donations for medicine.
She had a vision to build a village for poor people that contained all they needed to flourish. In 1973, the first seven homes were built in a new development outside of the city named Centro San Josè—it grew to include a farm, a market, and a school where people could learn the faith and find job training. It also included a church dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians.
Maria knew that she was participating in God’s work, so she had every confidence that her efforts at social development would grow. She died of a heart attack on this date in 1977, and she is buried in the chapel in San Josè. She is the first Central American to be beatified.
Bl. Maria Romero Meneses, you brought about a revolution of charity in Costa Rica in the 1970s—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Maria Romero Meneses is in the public domain. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
