Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
June 27, 2019
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.
As I have been reflecting on this Gospel, my fiancée and I have also been preparing for our wedding in November, which includes choosing our Gospel readings. Today’s Gospel is one of the options the Church recommends. Much to my chagrin, today’s Gospel mentions nothing about romance or the joys of marriage but rather cautions those preparing for marriage to ensure their relationship is solid, founded on rock.
In its infinite wisdom, the Church calls me, my fiancée, and others who are preparing for marriage to take a break from planning table settings, choosing menus, and deciding the playlist, to focus on the call to a lifetime of commitment. It takes a lot of planning to prepare for one day of joyful celebration, but how much more preparation does it take to daily renew a lifelong commitment?
Additionally, today’s Gospel brought to my mind the words of 1 Corinthians 13:13, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Surely those who drove out demons and performed mighty deeds must have had great faith in order to perform those miracles.
If such efforts, however, are performed without love as the foundation they will amount to nothing. Let us remember then, in every action small or mighty, to first listen to the voice of God and always respond with love as our solid foundation.
Prayer
Lord God, your Son Jesus Christ teaches us that each of our days on earth holds a new opportunity to discover the treasures of your eternal kingdom. Each day opens up for us the opportunity to find deeper meaning and insight flowing from his Word and his way of life. Help us, O God, to comprehend this holy wisdom in the manner of one who chooses to build his house on rock. The rock of course, is Christ—this we believe. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Cyril of Alexandria was at the center of one of the great dramas in Christian theology, and it is thanks to his courage and clear vision that our beliefs about Jesus have been faithfully passed on to us.
He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in the late 300s. His uncle led the Church in Alexandria, and when he died, Cyril was named bishop there. Cyril was known as a vigilant defender of the faith, and kept careful watch over the Christian communities that were under his supervision.
In 428 a monk and priest named Nestorius was named archbishop of Constantinople, a city that was the seat of the empire. Nestorius began proclaiming beliefs about Jesus that claimed he was really two persons—divine and human—and that the divine person of Jesus simply inhabited the human part of him. In short, he was teaching that Jesus was God who walked on earth wearing a human body like a suit. As a consequence, he said, Mary should not be called Mother of God, but only mother of the man, Jesus.
Cyril objected and raised the matter with the pope. The pope called a meeting in Rome to examine the claims and sided with Cyril, and had Cyril deliver the verdict to Nestorius, who was to be excommunicated unless he retracted his claims. Nestorius refused.
In 431 a large council was gathered at Ephesus to decide the matter once and for all—Cyril led the council and acted as the pope’s representative. Nestorius was in town, but refused to attend. In his absence, the council condemned his works and excommunicated him.
The story does not end there. A group of some 40 bishops from Antioch arrived to the council late, and supported Nestorius. They were not accepted to the council, so they formed their own council in town and claimed to depose Cyril.
Both sides appealed to the emperor. Confused, the emperor had both Cyril and Nestorius jailed until it could all be sorted out.
Finally, representatives from the pope arrived and explained the matter to the emperor, and Cyril was released and restored to honor. Nestorius was sent back to Antioch to retire to his monastery, and he was later further exiled to the desert. The group of bishops from Antioch reconciled with Cyril and gave a statement of their orthodoxy.
Until he died in 444, Cyril maintained the faith that was handed to him from the apostles. Even his contemporaries knew him to be a great defender of the faith. Because of his strong and clear leadership, the declarations of the Council of Ephesus continue to guide our faith today. Thanks to Cyril’s leadership, we understand Jesus’ Incarnation to mean that Jesus was fully God and fully man—one person with two natures.
This may seem like a semantic abstraction, but the implications are tremendous for Christian spirituality. In the Incarnation, God fully joined our humanity in the person of Jesus. This was not God paying us a visit or pretending to be human for a while—God became human in every way except for sin. This means that every part of our humanity has the potential to connect us with the divine—we can find God in beauty and goodness, in relationships and learning truth, for example. Even our daily experience—the mundane progression of our days—can be a source of connection to the divine for us.
St. Cyril of Alexandria has been named a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example—he is known as the Doctor of the Incarnation. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, you guided the Church through heresy and handed us the faith we live today—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Cyril of Alexandria available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
.jpg){kind=link}