Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 30, 2020
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would be written.
I was a freshman in college when I joined the Church. That was five years ago, but these days I find myself feeling the same eagerness and envy that I felt just before my confirmation. As Easter approached, I was practically aching to receive Christ in the Eucharist after nearly a year of study and prayer.
But, my eagerness soon transformed into envy. During my first Lent, I felt jealous of those I saw receiving the sacrament at Mass while I merely crossed my arms for the blessing. I watched classmates in the communion line, and judged them less worthy: “Lord, does he study or pray more than I do?” or “Why is she able to receive you while I wait here? Do I not desire you above all?” My yearning had become a monstrous jealousy.
Ironically, in the years since my confirmation, I have heard many well-meaning Catholics insist that I am fortunate to have professed the faith as an adult. What they don’t know is that from time to time I still feel envy that Jesus has called so many to follow him from the cradle to the grave. I envy them for the years of childhood faith I will never know. But, the call to follow Jesus is just that: I am to follow, not envy my brother or resent my sister for her calling. I follow Jesus, that is all I am commanded to do. After all, God’s mercy to me has been great, will I be jealous because my Father is generous?
Even so, I know how easy it is to make Jesus just another object of desire for me to covet. This also seems to be the case for the comically eager disciple Peter, whose last words in the gospel are nearly the envious words of Cain from Genesis: “What about him?” Like Peter, I find myself now feeling eager and envious: eager to follow Jesus and receive the sacraments, but envious of those who have followed him more faithfully in this quarantine or already have the sacraments again. Yet, praise be to God, my salvation from the envying and desiring is found in Christ’s last, simple command to our first Pope: “Follow me!”
Prayer
God of truth, we know the experience of misunderstanding and the harm done by spreading stories that are not completely true. By your grace, give us courage to testify to the truth in our daily lives. Help us today to see your many wonderful works, to celebrate them, and to share them so that your Spirit may grow in us. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Saint of the Day
St. Joan of Arc is a heroine of France and revered as a holy person for her faithfulness and courage, which she displayed in battle, but even more acutely in her trial and execution.
She was born Jeanne in 1412 on the feast of the Epiphany. Her parents were peasant farmers who lived in a small village in the Champagne region of France. She never learned to read or write, but was full of faith.
“She was so good that all the village loved her,” her neighbors said of her. As a girl, she loved to pray and receive the sacraments, and she cared for the sick and the indigent, often giving them her own bed.
At the age of 14, she began hearing voices telling her she had a mission to save France. She began to recognize these voices as those of saints—Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.
It was a time of civil war and political turmoil in France. The English had invaded and allied with an army from the region of Burgundy. Together, this force had displaced the French king and threatened to conquer the whole nation.
When the voices would not go away, Joan presented herself as a resource to the local commander of the French army, but he laughed and sent her away. She returned when the voices became even more insistent. The commander softened his skepticism when a defeat that she had foretold actually came about.
He sent her to King Charles VII with an escort. The king received her in a large audience room, but disguised himself. She immediately identified him and convinced him of her revelations. He had her examined by theologians, who found nothing objectionable, and she was sent to the head of the army in Orleans, a town under siege by the English.
She marched into battle with a banner that proclaimed the names of Jesus and Mary. Within 10 days, the siege was broken. Even though she was wounded by an arrow, she pressed on with the army to other regions and routed her opponents. Her victory regained a bulk of the kingdom of France from the intruders, and concluded the mission that was entrusted to her by the voices she heard. She predicted all of these events before any of them happened.
She went on to lead a bold attack on Paris, but from then on, she found no success in her military quests. She was wounded again in battle and was captured by soldiers from Burgundy and sold to England. The French court did nothing to come to her aid, and she was tried as a witch. She was questioned and examined tirelessly about the voices she heard, her faith, and the fact that she wore armor in battle to appear as a man. She had no one to counsel her, yet faced her inquisitors and accusers with courage and simple cleverness.
They exploited her lack of education by trapping her with theological terms, and she was condemned and denounced. The authorities handed her over for punishment as a heretic if she refused to retract her statements. She stood her ground, even though she was threatened with torture, and was burned at the stake, still a teenager.
Two decades later, her family asked the pope to reopen the case, and her verdict was thrown out. Joan’s case was vindicated, and she was eventually canonized in 1920. She is venerated as a saint, but not as a martyr.
Joan of Arc is the patron saint of France and of soldiers. A bronze sculpture of her stands in the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. She is also depicted in a statue that stands above the east door of the Basilica—the War Memorial Door that bears the “God, Country, Notre Dame” inscription. This door is dedicated to soldiers from Notre Dame who died during World War I.
St. Joan of Arc, you were an illiterate, peasant, teenage Saint who listened to the will of God and led an army—pray for us!
To learn even more about St. Joan of Arc, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Image credit: (1) Emmanuel Frémiet (French, 1824-1910), Joan of Arc, after 1874, bronze. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art: Fred and Delores Geissel Memorial Fund, 1979.049.