Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 2, 2025
Jesus told his disciples a parable,
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
In one of my first psychology courses, my professor briefly introduced an experiment in which kittens were exposed only to vertical lines for weeks after birth. They were kept in rooms with striped walls and fed by researchers wearing vertical stripes or solid colors. When eventually exposed to the world outside that room, the cats had no concept of horizontal lines. The legs of the chairs were no issue, but they could not conceptualize the seat of the chair. Meanwhile, kittens exposed only to horizontal lines had the opposite issue. They easily leaped onto chairs but consistently ran into their legs. It wasn’t impossible to build the unformed neural connections, but it would take time, consistency, and effort.
I wondered—how often do I do the same thing? When I become too comfortable with my perspective, how much of reality do I fail to recognize? Like with the kitten’s undeveloped neural connections, it takes repetition and intention to expand our minds, and we cannot be our own teachers. Someone greater, wiser, more powerful than I must guide me because I know only what I expose myself to. If that is nothing new, how can I learn?
Jesus, our ultimate teacher, spent much of his ministry listening to those on the margins of life. In a world of vertical lines, he pointed out the horizontal lines, too. He exemplified that to love properly, we must think beyond ourselves. He showed us that to be a leader in the faith means a willingness to be led by the needs of the sheep, to acknowledge the splinter in our own eyes, and to share our experiences of life with one another.
Together, we can move less blindly. We can teach and be taught. The church is composed of imperfect people held together by a perfect love.
Prayer
Good and gracious Father, you invite us to contemplate the mystery of our lives. In doing so, we see how you nurture us, challenge us, and help us grow. We are trees capable of producing both good and rotten fruit. In your wisdom, shape us so that we might be a source of love for others. Stretch and embolden us so that others might find rest in our shade. Guide us so that our thoughts, words, and deeds might nourish others. And in the moments when our spirit fails, give us strength to rise again so that we may be true disciples of Christ, our teacher in all things, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Angela was a young woman from Spain who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross. Angela was born as María de los Ángeles Guerrero y Gonzálex in Seville, Spain in 1846.
She was one of fourteen children, most of whom did not survive childhood. Her parents were humble workers who worked at a Trinitarian Friary in their city. Angela did not receive much formal education, but she received catechesis and received her first communion at eight and confirmation. When she was just twelve years old, she began to repair shoes in a local cobbler's shop.
Although a shoe repair shop seems like an unlikely place to encounter Christ, it was while working in this shop that the flames of young Angela's faith were fanned. Antonia Maldonado, the owner of the shop, encouraged all her employees to pray together during the work-day. Antonia taught them the lives of the saints. Antonia's spiritual director, a priest renowned for his spiritual wisdom, often heard the confessions of the women in the shop. At the age of nineteen, Angela applied to become a Carmelite sister. The Carmelites denied the frail young woman's request, as she did not seem suited for the manual life of the monastic Carmelites.
Angela's confessor recommended that she begin working among the ill of the city on her own. In 1865, a cholera epidemic was running through Seville, and there were many sick men and women in need of care. Angela cared for the sick, and still kept her heart set on religious life. She applied to join the Daughters of Charity in Seville. She was accepted, but illness kept her from becoming a full part of the community. Angela returned to the shoe shop and began to plan and pray for a new venture. In 1875, Angela and three companions founded a religious community to support the local poor and ill. Angela took the name Mother Angela of the Cross. The archbishop of Seville approved the order one year later in 1876, and two more communities were established. In the years that followed, over twenty communities sprung up all over Spain. The Sisters of the Company of the Cross continue to minister in Spain to this day. Mother Angela died on March 2, 1932, at the age of eighty-six. She was canonized by John Paul II in 2003 in Madrid. Mother Angela is a great model of perseverance in doing God's will. Despite facing obstacles, Angela continually sought to serve God, despite her own limitations.
St. Angela of the Cross, who gave her life in service to the poor—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Angela of the Cross is in the public domain. Last accessed February 4, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.