Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 26, 2019
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but underneath are ravenous wolves.
By their fruits you will know them.
Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit,
and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down
and thrown into the fire.
So by their fruits you will know them.”
In our busy, Internet-driven lives, we are constantly bombarded by a variety of messaging from all over the world. In an instant, we can connect to and be connected with almost anyone, almost anywhere on the planet. I could be elk hunting in a remote mountain ridge in Montana and get a cellphone ping that allows me to communicate with friends in India in real time.
This easy, infinite, and immediate access to people, thoughts, commodities, and images can be wonderful and amazing, and it can also pose challenges to our values and perhaps steer us on the wrong path. We no longer live within a similar community with common struggles and values that shape our action. We no longer need to travel through time and distance to be confronted and challenged with completely different systems of beliefs and actions.
So, how do we know what is true and good? When caught in an avalanche of information with conflicting values and outcomes, how can we know what is truly good?
In this Gospel, Jesus directs us to the correct course in life by encouraging us to evaluate the goodness of the fruit. From the fruit, we shall know the goodness of the tree.
That sure seems simple enough, but how many of us have chosen an apple that appeared to be perfect in color, shape, and size, only to cut it open to find it rotten? This is our challenge: we must get beyond the superficial appearance of the fruit. We must dig deeper to the core in order to find the Truth.
As you sprint through your life today and surf the web of information that comes in ever-dizzying speeds, pause and slice the apple open. What we find inside will help us find what is true and good.
Prayer
Help us, Lord, to be true to our faith in you. When we have failed to serve you and thought mostly of ourselves, we know we can still turn to you in trust and ask for forgiveness. In that way, we are still part of the flock, still under the care of the Shepherd. Let the wolves prowl around – we are with the savior.
Saint of the Day
Josemaria Escriva is known for founding Opus Dei, an organization of Catholics who seek holiness in daily life.
He was born in Spain in 1902 to a devout family. He had five siblings, but three of his sisters died as infants. His father owned a small business but struggled to stay afloat and finally filed for bankruptcy. These misfortunes seemed to have matured Josemaria at an early age.
As a teenager, he once discovered the footprints a monk left behind in the snow—the image struck him and awoke within him a desire to become a priest. He entered the seminary and was ordained in 1925.
In 1927, Josemaria moved to Madrid to begin graduate study in civil law. Because his father had died three years prior, his mother, sister, and brother joined him—Josemaria was the family provider and supported them by tutoring other law students.
During this time, he also took on pastoral care for people who were sick or poor, as well as manual laborers in Madrid. University students who came to know him joined him in this work. When he was on retreat in 1928, it became clear to him that he should formalize this way of life and organize a Catholic community under the name Opus Dei, or “work of God.”
The community included clergy and laypeople, married and single people, men and women. It involved people from all walks of life in the effort to follow Jesus and seek holiness in their daily experience. The idea of Opus Dei was not to find holiness by escaping the world, as monks did, but by entering it more deeply and sanctifying it in the way members fulfill their responsibilities in their occupations and families and communities.
Josemaria’s work was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936 and included a violent persecution of the Catholic Church. Many priests were killed, but Josemaria escaped into a safe region of Spain. When the war ended in 1939, he returned to Madrid and finished his law degree. He began spreading the work of Opus Dei and gave many retreats for laypeople, religious, and clergy.
Opus Dei began spreading through Spain, and after World War II it became an international organization. Members established institutions to serve the Church and society, such as hospitals and schools. It was formally approved by the Vatican in 1950 and today claims more than 80,000 members in more than 60 countries.
Josemaria moved to Rome to assist the growing international expansion of Opus Dei and to be a part of the conversation that was changing the Church in the era of the Second Vatican Council. He died on this date in 1975, and was canonized in 2002 after a miracle was confirmed in which a surgeon’s hands were healed from a career-ending disease through his intercession.
“With supernatural intuition, Blessed Josemaria untiringly preached the universal call to holiness,” said Pope St. John Paul II in his homily at the beatification of St. Josemaria. “Christ calls everyone to become holy in the realities of everyday life. Hence, work, too, is a means of personal holiness and apostolate, when it is done in union with Jesus Christ.”
St. Josemaria Escriva, you founded Opus Dei and helped Christians find holiness in everyday life—pray for us!
Image Credit: Image by Notre Dame alumnus Matthew Alderman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of his art. Used here with permission.