Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 19, 2021
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
All parents worry about sending their children “into the world,” as today’s reading puts it. I remember when I went to an open house at a local preschool as we prepared for our first child to go to school; I cried like he was going off to college. And I cried the same way when he actually went to college, and when he graduated (and at every other milestone along the way… and the same for each one of our children).
We always want our children to be “one” with us like Jesus is “one with the Father.” But that doesn’t mean that we can keep them from growing up and moving on in their lives. We must send them out into the world just as the Father sent Jesus into the world. We trust our Lord to protect them as he says in this reading: “When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me.” We cannot flee from the world, we must live in the world trusting in God to guide and protect us. Even though we do not belong to the world, Jesus does not ask God to take us out of the world, but to consecrate us in truth. We can live in the world with faithfulness and fidelity but only if we do so in the light of God’s truth.
In this graduation season, we prepare to send many of our loved ones “into the world” in a way that will be a new challenge. This gospel asks us to trust. We trust that we can live in the world and love God at the same time. We trust that God will protect us. And most of all we trust that God will consecrate us in truth.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you prayed for the mercy shown by the Father, and promised to protect us so that we may be one as you and the Father are one. Look not at our faults and failures, and grant us your forgiveness and your mercy. Give us strength to call upon you, and may we all be one in faith, service, courage, and truth.
Saint of the Day
St. Ivo is patron saint of lawyers because of the great lengths he went to in order to serve his clients and the poor.
He was born to an aristocratic family in Brittany in 1253, in the northwest part of France. As a teenager, he was sent to schools in Paris, where he excelled as a student, and went on to study law under a famous jurist in Orleans. As a student, he began to practice self-mortification in order to discipline his will—he abstained from meat and wine, ate only bread and water during Lent and Advent, and slept on a simple straw mat.
When he completed his training in the law, he took on a role judging cases that came before the Church’s court in a nearby diocese. He used his position to protect orphans and defend the poor, and he did so with such charity and kindness that he reconciled many of those who lost their cases to his decision.
He was recalled to serve the bishop in his home diocese in Brittany, where he continued to defend the marginalized; he became known as “the poor man’s advocate.” When his clients faced charges in civil courts, he would defend them there, too, and would visit them in prison and even pay their expenses. He went to great lengths to reconcile opposing parties so that they would not argue the case in court and begin unnecessary and costly lawsuits. It was customary in his culture to offer bribes and presents to lawyers, even before engaging their representation, but Ivo never accepted these gifts.
In 1284, Ivo was ordained a priest, and three years later, he left his practice of the law to dedicate all of his energy to his parishioners. He built a hospital and worked there himself to help care for the sick. He often gave the clothes off of his back to people he found on the street. Ivo once found a homeless man sleeping on his doorstep, and insisted that the man sleep in his bed inside; Ivo himself took the man’s place sleeping on the doorstep.
Ivo was a great preacher, and would visit other churches to speak to congregations there. After 15 years of leading people as a priest, he died of an illness on this date in 1303. He was 50 years old.
St. Ivo is depicted in stained glass windows from the Basilica. He is also depicted with the symbol of the bread he shared with the poor in this imagery from the exterior of the Eck Hall of Law on campus.
St. Ivo, you were known as “the poor man’s advocate” and are patron saint of lawyers—pray for us!
View a FaithND prayer card for lawyers that asks for St. Ivo's intercession here.