Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 30, 2023
Peter began to say to Jesus,
‘We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
You can hear Peter’s frustration with Jesus that he and the disciples have left their lives to follow him and that still, it isn’t enough. Now they must give up houses, possessions, and even close relationships too?
After stepping out of a boat and failing to walk on water, catching overwhelming nets full of fish and people, Peter, like us, is still stumbling on the beginning of a lifelong journey where Jesus is inviting us to be closer to him.
This past Lent was my second time participating in Exodus90—90 days of asceticism and discipline, daily holy hours, cold showers, no TV, alcohol, desserts, and no social media. It was a much-needed reset.
As challenging as the physical requirements were, the true challenge was giving up the deeper attachments to who I thought I was and taking the time to listen to who God is calling me to be from the very depths of my heart. No small task!
Daily I had to remind myself that all the things, people, relationships, and the glorious combination of chocolate and peanut butter that I sorely missed are gifts from God to be enjoyed and shared and were never mine to begin with. These gifts extend to my career, family, friends, and even my dog, Dutton.
Through this pilgrimage in the Exodus90 desert, I learned to let go of relationships no longer serving God and surrender my perspective beyond my wants and comforts to seeking humility in all things.
Like Peter, I want to think there is a point where I finally make it and do enough to make it to the promised land. But let us continue to be reminded, like Peter, we are always on the journey to wholeness and rest in God. We must continuously seek the humility to put our will last and lovingly, compassionately, and faithfully pick ourselves and each other up along the way.
Prayer
Lord, like your first disciples, we wish to abandon all to follow you. Yet we have learned that we still have it within ourselves to hold back. We wish to be whole-hearted, yet we are hesitant. May the promise of your love and friendship continue to draw us along the paths of discipleship in this world to our eternal home in the world to come. Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Joan of Arc is 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 patron saint of France and of soldiers. She is 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.
The statuette above stands in the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Read an article in Church Life Journal about the witness of Joan of Arc's sainthood by Sr. Ann Astell, professor theology at Notre Dame.
To learn even more about Saint Joan of Arc, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
St. Joan of Arc, you were an illiterate, peasant, teenaged saint who listened to the will of God and led an army—pray for us!
Image credit:
Emmanuel Frémiet (French, 1824-1910), Joan of Arc, after 1874, bronze. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art: Fred and Delores Geissel Memorial Fund, 1979.049.