Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 21, 2024
Jesus said to the Jews:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
The Pharisees had a good point. If a bearded man from a backwater town walked into your church and claimed that he was God and that you wouldn’t die as long as you kept his word, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he was possessed. Someone who says that is out of his mind.
Unless, of course, that man is God.
Today’s gospel lays out the fundamental decision every person in history has had to make, a question first asked of the Virgin Mary and then Joseph, then the Magi and Herod, Peter, and the disciples, all down through history to you and me. And that question is this:
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?
If the answer is no, then—as C.S. Lewis put it—the sensible thing to do is to dismiss him as a liar or lunatic. Liars and lunatics should be rebuked or given medical assistance. But if the answer is yes—if Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God—then there is only one suitable response to his words: We should keep them and obey them with our whole hearts, attending to them as if our lives depended on it.
I suspect many of us spend most of our lives never facing the question as squarely as the Pharisees or the Blessed Virgin Mary did, but we should. Is Jesus Christ actually God?
If he isn’t, ignore him and the church he established and all of its inconvenient and unpopular teachings. But if he is God, the one on whom every atom in creation depends, we might reject the Pharisees’ approach and instead “keep his words.” We might take the timeless advice of Our Lady moments before Christ’s first miracle at Cana: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Prayer
God in heaven, Jesus your Son spoke the truth, a truth rejected by many who heard him. We strive to live in that truth—we want our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to keep us faithful. Make us ever more aware of the life-giving promises that Jesus proclaimed, that we may live forever in your sight. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Benedetta Cambiagio began her adult life as a wife, and ended it as a nun. Along the way, she continued to work closely with her husband.
She was born in Italy in 1791, and had parents that conscientiously formed her in the faith. When she was 20 years old, she had a mystical experience that encouraged her to pursue a vocation to live as a nun, but her parents preferred that she marry. Out of obedience to them, she married Giovanni Frassinello in 1816.
The couple lived a normal married life for two years, until Giovanni recognized in Benedetta a genuine and deep desire to live as a dedicated religious sister. They decided to live together as brother and sister. Benedetta's younger sister, Martha, was sick with cancer and the couple took her into their home and nursed her through the final stages of the illness until she died.
After Martha died, Giovanni and Benedetta both decided to enter religious communities to live lives consecrated to God alone. The idea did not last long as Benedetta's health failed. She was cured miraculously through the intercession of St. Jerome Emiliani, and rededicated herself to religious life and to the education of young girls.
Working with her bishop, she reformed the approach to educating women. Because of the enormity of the task, the bishop requested Giovanni to help her. The two made a vow of chastity to the bishop as they set out on their work, but that did not stop many from gossiping. Benedetta turned her work over to the bishop so that she would not get in the way, and withdrew to a convent in a different town.
Eventually, Benedetta opened a different school and founded a religious community of her own, which is entirely dedicated to the education of young girls. The spirituality of her community is marked by a confidence in God, and abandonment to God’s will.
St. Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello, you were the wife who became a nun to transform education for girls—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed February 6, 2025.