Daily Gospel Reflection

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May 7, 2023

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Jn 14:1-12
Listen to the Audio Version

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
Thomas said to him,
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.”

Reflection

Daniel Rober '05
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Today’s Gospel passage asserts the impossible. How could we possibly, however much faith we might possess, do greater works than Jesus? Most of us are lucky to fulfill the tasks of our daily lives, much less heal the blind or raise the dead. Jesus in the Gospel of John, whose divinity practically radiates off the page, casually asserts that we will do just that.

I suggest that this strange assertion is an invitation to believe and contemplate a mystery. Our faith is halting like Philip’s: we feel that we cannot perform greater works than Jesus, and yet paradoxically, he tells us we can. How?

Often the arts help us to see through the cloud, as it were, to understand things about ourselves that we cannot put into words. At the end of the 2013 film To the Wonder, a very realistic work about human frailty and our inability to live out the ideals we seek, we find a priest struggling with his faith. He rediscovers that faith in service to the sick and the poor.

Near the very end of this moving sequence showing the priest in service, he paraphrases John Henry Newman in a way that sums up the meaning of today’s Gospel: “Flood our souls with your spirit and life so completely that our lives may only be a reflection of yours. Shine through us.”

We are most truly ourselves and most faithful to the Gospel when we embrace goodness and care for others. This does not mean canceling or demeaning ourselves but becoming our truest and best versions in a kind of kenosis or self-emptying.

I would suggest this is our way into the mystery of how we might do greater works than Jesus.

Prayer

Rev. Brad Metz, C.S.C.

God of all strength and consolation, you hear those who cry out to you in their need. Even though the world’s evils are many, never let your faithful be overcome by hatred and vengeance. Sustain us with the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation. Let your face shine upon us and we shall be saved. Grant this through Christ, our risen Lord. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Rose Venerini

Rose Venerini followed God's voice, which was speaking to her in the circumstances of her life, and changed the lives of many people through her gifts as an educator.

She was born in 1656 in Viterbo, Italy. When she came of age, she was engaged to a young man, but he died suddenly. She decided to enter the convent, but only stayed there for a few months—her father had died, and she was needed at home to help her mother.

During this time at home, she gathered women from the neighborhood in her house to pray the rosary. She was struck by how little these women knew of their faith, so she began to instruct them. She still had hopes of entering a convent to spend her life in seclusion and prayer, but her spiritual director, who saw her work with the women in the prayer group, encouraged her to explore a vocation in the world as a teacher.

With two others, Rose opened a free school for girls in 1685, and it was a success. She quickly became known for her insights into education, and was invited by a cardinal in the area to give advice on the administration of schools in the diocese and to help train teachers.

Rose was known for her persuasive ways of speaking, and for her responsiveness to any situation. She went on to found more schools, though sometimes she faced fierce resistance. In one instance, opponents shot arrows at teachers and burned their house down. Still, she persevered with patience and trust. At the time of her death, 40 schools were under her direction.

After her death, many of the lay teachers who worked in her schools gathered into a religious community, called the Venerini sisters, who worked with Italian immigrants in the U.S.

St. Rose mentored another educational matriarch in Italy, St. Lucy Filippini, whose relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. St. Rose was canonized in 2006 and her image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.

St. Rose Venerini, you turned away both the convent and marriage to transform schools—pray for us!