Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
March 6, 2023
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
I’m a parent to four young children. Our oldest is seven. They’re lovely and spunky and charming. And just as in any family, each of our kids is learning how to get under their siblings’ (and occasionally their parents’) skin. Lately, few exclamations bug me more than, “It’s not fair!” My wife introduced me to the truism, “compare and despair,” and we find ourselves repeating it to our kids in these moments.
For as much as I console my children to avoid getting caught up on every little thing being fair, I have a hard time taking my own advice. I may not scream out loud while rolling on the floor, but I’m just as guilty of comparing my circumstances with others and then thinking or saying to myself, “It’s not fair.” The seemingly extra chore that’s left for me to do around the house. The barely missed promotion or professional opportunity at work can lead me to compare and despair.
Today’s Gospel passage from Luke falls in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. Surrounded by iconic teachings like Luke’s recounting of the Beatitudes and Jesus challenging us to love our enemies, it’s easy to overlook the deep wisdom in today’s reading.
Show mercy instead of judging. Forgive instead of condemning. Let go of every little thing needing to be fair at every single moment of life. Take the long view, the eternal view, of the grace overflowing that God is pouring into our laps.
Prayer
God, the greatest gift we can give you is being merciful to our sisters and brothers. In order to forgive, however, we have to let go of the pain we hold. Letting go of those hurts is a hard sacrifice—help us to die to ourselves willingly so that we can live in your mercy. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Colette lived a life of extremes in service to God's will.
She was born in France in 1381, daughter to a carpenter. Both of her parents had died by the time she was 17 years old, and she gave away her possessions to the poor and joined a community of Franciscans.
For a time she lived as an anchoress—someone who lives in solitude and prayer—by having herself sealed in a brick cell with only one small, grated window looking in to a church. She became known for her spiritual insight and wisdom.
She had a vision from St. Francis in which he told her to reform the order of Poor Clares. To do this, she had to leave her cell. She decided to travel through France without shoes and in a patched nun’s habit, begging and encouraging greater faithfulness, especially among the religious orders there.
Her efforts were met with great opposition—she was even accused of sorcery—but she persisted, and began a movement that reformed convents in parts of France, Spain, and Belgium. She founded 17 additional convents in the reformed, stricter rule of the Poor Clares.
She was well-known for her holiness and for the depth of her prayer, which often led to ecstatic visions. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and her image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
St. Colette, you called people to greater holiness by your own example and dedication to prayer—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Colette is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
.png){kind=link}