Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 3, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Years ago, I spoke with my spiritual director about my younger brother. I was hoping to help him avoid some of the pitfalls that I had made at his age. I thought, “If I can help my brother see that if only I had avoided this or that choice, life would be that much easier, and I would have been more successful.”
My director listened intently and then said something that has remained with me to this day. “So, you don’t want him to experience Good Friday?” I said, “Not if he doesn’t have to—I love him after all!” His response? “We can’t experience the joy of Easter if we do not also experience the passion of Good Friday.”
Jesus knew that he would suffer, and he did so willingly because of his great love for his Father. The witness that Jesus provides is that even with great faith, we will suffer our passion. The fantastic and comforting fact is this: our God does not cause our suffering but knows what suffering is firsthand and is with us every step of the way until we, too, experience our own Easter joy.
This Lenten season, may the words of Dorothy Day from The Reckless Way of Love give us hope during our days of trial.
“I should know by this time that just because I feel that everything is useless and going to pieces and badly done and futile, it is not really that way at all. Everything is all right. It is in the hands of God. Let us abandon everything to Divine Providence.”
Amen!
Prayer
Jesus, my Lord, all too often we define ourselves by what we have or what we do, instead of who we are. All I will have left is me – and you. Oh Jesus, I wish I valued you as much as I value other things or people in my life. During these 40 days let your words change me: “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”
Saint of the Day
St. Katharine Drexel voluntarily stepped beyond her privileged upper-class life in Philadelphia to encounter and heal the suffering she saw in America. She is the second American-born Catholic saint.
She was born 1858 to a family of wealth—her father was an investment banker, and her uncle founded Drexel University. Her mother died giving birth to Katharine’s sister, and the girls were sent to live with an aunt and uncle for two years. They returned to her father’s home when he re-married.
Despite their wealth, Katharine’s parents did not allow their girls a sheltered life. The family traveled widely, and Katharine saw much of the emerging American nation as well as Europe. Three days a week, their home was opened to feed the hungry and serve the poor with clothing and rental assistance. If they heard of a widow who was too proud to come to them, they quietly sought her out to offer their support.
When Katharine’s stepmother fell ill from a terminal illness, Katharine nursed her, and began to understand that no fortune could save a person from pain or death.
She was particularly moved by the plight of Native Americans and African Americans, and on a trip to Europe, she had the chance to greet Pope Leo XIII. She asked him to send missionaries to help Native Americans in Wyoming. He replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” This response shocked her and helped her open up new possibilities as to how to spend her life.
She very easily could have married, but after discernment and spiritual direction, she decided to dedicate her life to serving Native American and African American people. Her decision made big news in the elite social circles of Philadelphia; newspapers wondered how she could walk away from married life and an inheritance worth more than $100 million in today's dollars—to serve poor people.
Katharine founded a religious order of nuns—the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament—to serve people marginalized by American society. They began with a boarding school in Santa Fe, and by 1942, they were running schools and mission centers for black children in thirteen states and ministering to Native Americans in fifteen states. In 1915, Katharine opened Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Roman Catholic university in the nation that accepted black students.
Segregationists were not happy with her efforts and burned a school in Pennsylvania. A stick of dynamite was discovered at another mission site. In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan threatened a school the sisters had opened in Beaumont, Texas, but a few days later, a severe thunderstorm devastated the area and tore down the Klan’s headquarters there.
When she was 77, Katharine suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Many thought the foundress was near the end of her life, but she lived for nearly two more decades. This last period of life was intensely focused on prayer and meditation.
St. Katharine Drexel was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Along with her story, the illustration featured today is used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Katharine Drexel, who gave her great wealth to serve America's marginalized—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Katharine Drexel is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.