Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
March 22, 2023
Jesus answered the Jews:
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
How do we discover truth? This is an essential question in the high school theology course I teach to Juniors. Uncovering the answers with them each year over and over again through Scripture and church teaching is a joy.
In this reading, Jesus faces the judgment of the Jews for curing a man on the Sabbath and teaches us important lessons about the truth in our lives. As the creation, not the Creator, the truth can be sought, but not outside what God gives us.
Jesus lists for us the many ways he, as the Son, is united to the Father, including raising the dead and condemning those with wicked deeds. He has perfectly shared knowledge with God while being fully human. He shows us that it is in this united will that we, too, become more fully human. We discover truth by uniting our will to God’s and receiving what our loving Father offers us.
In this choice, based on the Imago Dei (image of God) in our reason, free will, and ability to love, I see the greatest fruit in my students. Many of them are discovering this truth if not for the first time (as a large percentage have non-Catholic or religious backgrounds), often for the first time in this developmental stage, looking ahead to adulthood and seeking purpose—seeking truth.
My teaching days for this school year have ended as we welcome our fourth child into our family, but the message from Jesus continues to resonate. Choose truth and unite the will to the Father and become more truly human.
Prayer
Father in Heaven, we stand before you today and ask for the grace to do your will. We await the hour when you will call out to those in the tombs, and for the dead to hear your voice. Breathe new life into us, that we may hear your voice, and act in accordance with your will. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Nicholas Owen was a lay man who attached himself to the community of Jesuits living in London in the late 1500s. England, at that time, was suppressing and persecuting Catholics, and Nicholas was a skilled carpenter who built many secret passages and compartments in homes that were used to hide priests.
He was arrested with other Jesuits in 1594 and imprisoned in the London Tower where he was tortured in an attempt to make him give up names and locations of his Catholic friends and Jesuit brothers. He refused, and a wealthy Catholic family ransomed him from prison. The authorities let him go, thinking he was an insignificant associate of the other Jesuits they had captured.
Nicholas returned to engineer the escape of the Jesuit priest who was imprisoned with him and also being tortured. Nicholas also arranged for the escape of their guard, whom they had befriended, because he would face punishment for their flight. Nicholas strung a rope to the tower across a moat, and they successfully got away.
Nicholas was of very small stature, and people called him “Little John.” He was, nevertheless, very strong, as much of his work had him breaking through thick stonework. He worked at night and alone, and always kept his devices and designs a secret. Authorities could search a home for a week, punching holes in walls and pulling up floors, and still not find his hiding places.
Once, when authorities were close to discovering some priests who were in hiding, Nicholas turned himself in to divert their attention. This time, the captors knew who it was they had arrested, and they tortured him again. Nicholas refused to give up any information, and he died from those injuries in 1606.
St. Nicholas of Owen was canonized in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Nicholas Owen, the cunning carpenter who saved persecuted priests by building secret passages—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Nicholas Owen is an illustration by Notre Dame alumnus Matthew Alderman '06, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of his art. Used here with permission.