Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 28, 2025
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”
We encounter mystery regularly in life. Events happen that are beyond our understanding and can push us to our limits and beyond. They can leave us marveling and overjoyed or completely devastated and in despair. There are experiences that we just cannot understand, no matter how hard we try.
Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that he cannot reveal everything to us all at once because it would be too much for us to bear. He allows for the mystery of not knowing, not completely understanding, out of his deep love and care for us. The apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. They did not yet know the horror of the cross, the glory of the resurrection, nor where God was going to lead them.
Jesus speaks to us all when he tells the apostles that he will send his Spirit to guide and prepare them for the mystery that is yet to unfold. As the Easter people, we can draw from the wellspring of knowing that in those moments where we do not understand—whether we feel like we are at Calvary or before the empty tomb—the Spirit remains with us, preparing us for when we will understand and leading us where we are to go.
Prayer
Loving God, Christ promised his disciples the gift of the Spirit who would guide them to all truth. In these often confusing and difficult times, many “truths” are spoken. Open us up to the gifts of your Spirit to be able to discern your truth so that we may more faithfully speak it to others and embrace it more fully in our own lives. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Bernard of Montjoux was a saint of great hospitality who not only welcomed travelers crossing the Alps to visit Rome and the Holy Land, but in many cases, he saved their lives.
He was born in Italy in the tenth century, and after his ordination to the priesthood, he was appointed to a position that entailed caring for small village communities in a region of the Alps. This area included two of the most accessible passes through the mountains that were used by pilgrims traveling from northern Europe to Rome and the Holy Land.
The pilgrims traveling through the Alps through these passes faced many dangers. The temperatures in the mountains could easily freeze a person, and some did not expect to confront the snow that they had to trudge through in higher elevations, not to mention the threat of avalanches. In addition, robbers would frequently take advantage of the isolation and narrow pathways to ambush travelers and take their resources and gear.
Bernard assembled a patrol of civilians and cleared the mountain passes of these robbers. He also established two hospices at the summits of both passes, which welcomed travelers of any background and continue to do so today. The group of people who joined Bernard to staff the hospices fell into a regular community life together, which was formalized into a monastery. That community still exists to serve travelers in that region.
The famous large-breed rescue dogs that are named after St. Bernard were first used to rescue stranded travelers by the hospice communities founded by the saint. St. Bernard is the patron Saint of mountain climbers and skiers.
St. Bernard spent 42 years as a priest serving the people of this region. In addition to serving travelers, he founded schools and reformed parishes throughout the area. He lived to be 85 years old and died on this date in 1081.
St. Bernard of Montjoux, you saved pilgrims in the Alps from avalanches and robbers—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bernard of Montjoux is in the public domain/available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed March 11, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
