Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
June 6, 2019
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”
“They are your gift to me.”
How humbling, to think of the apostles—and by extension, us, God’s Church on earth—as the Father’s gift to his son.
I am often overcome by the extent of Jesus’ gift of love to us: death on the cross, the ultimate expression of agape. But how often do I return that gift to him?
I first learned about agape, the Greek word for self-giving love, in my seventh-grade religion class. While I’d never heard the term before, I immediately understood it, thanks to my mother. Despite chronic, sometimes debilitating headaches, she joyfully embraces each day as an opportunity to give of herself, whether at work advocating for survivors of domestic violence, in relationships with her loved ones, or in the adoration chapel, where she places countless friends’ and strangers’ joys and sufferings in God’s hands.
Personally, I struggle with agape. While I seek to emulate my mom, my thoughts always seem to circle back to myself and my needs—tempting me to skip my evening volunteer role because I’m just “too tired” after a long day, to avoid engaging the acquaintance I encounter on the street because I’d rather zone out on my way to work, or to consider others’ needs only when I’ve satisfied my own. But when I take opportunities to practice agape, I realize its true gift—the oneness to which Jesus calls us.
I find it easiest to put this call to love into practice when I start my day with God. By offering the first minutes of my morning to him, I enter into the mindset of self-gift. Today, I ask for the grace to practice living in this love, to make God’s name known through our own agape, and in so doing, experience our unity in him.
Prayer
Father, creator of all, you are the center of all life. Everything in this world points to you and leads us to you. Today we ask of you the grace to keep you at the center of our lives, to use you as the reference point of all our thoughts, words, and actions. In serving you, we hope to give our best to all whom we encounter this day. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Norbert turned away from a self-serving life through a dramatic conversion experience and went on to become a great reformer of the Church.
He was born in Germany in 1080 to royal parents. As a young man, he sought the priesthood as an ambitious career move and began preparations for ordination, even though he was only interested in a life of pleasures.
He was out riding one day when he was caught in a thunderstorm and tossed by his horse. He lay on the ground paralyzed for an hour. His first words when he awoke were the same as St. Paul’s after his famous conversion: “Lord, what will you have me do?” A voice answered, “Turn from evil and do good: seek after peace and pursue it.”
Immediately he changed his life. He returned to the court and gave his life to prayer and fasting. He finished his preparation for the priesthood and was ordained. He took on the life of a wandering preacher, encouraging conversion in the court where he lived, but the people there thought him hypocritical. In return, he sold all of his land and goods, keeping only a small bit of money, a mule (which soon died), and the things he needed to celebrate Mass.
He met with the pope, who gave him permission to preach wherever he chose. He set out on a mission to preach and started to gather around him others who were impressed by his conversion and commitment to the faith.
Church leaders drew on his leadership to reform monastic communities that had grown lax in their observance. Norbert himself started a community in an abandoned monastery, and their numbers grew such that other monasteries were established.
While visiting a town in Germany, Norbert was chosen as bishop of that town by popular acclaim from the community’s leaders, but as he approached his new rectory, the doorman turned him away, thinking he was a beggar because he was dressed so humbly. As bishop, he asserted a reform of the Church, which was met with resistance, but Norbert persisted.
Late in his life, he was drawn into a crisis in which disputed popes claimed to have been elected, and his influence was a great help in resolving the matter. All of his work had exhausted him, however—he had only been ordained 20 years when he died on this date at the age of 53.
Along with St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Norbert stands as a great reforming Saint of the time whose influence led people to holiness for generations. St. Norbert’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Norbert, your dramatic conversion experience helped you lead the Church to greater faithfulness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Norbert is in the public domain. Last accessed March 18, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
