Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 25, 2025
While some people were speaking about
how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,
Jesus said, “All that you see here–
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
Then they asked him,
“Teacher, when will this happen?
And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”
He answered,
“See that you not be deceived,
for many will come in my name, saying,
‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’
Do not follow them!
When you hear of wars and insurrections,
do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,
but it will not immediately be the end.”
Then he said to them,
“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues
from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
As we near the end of the liturgical year, we hear more and more about the end times from Scripture. When we look around, it can seem like these events are exactly what Jesus is talking about in our gospel today, but Jesus is not calling us to be interpreters of when the end of the world will be. So what does Jesus tell us to do instead? Jesus says, “Do not be terrified; for such things must happen first.” What do you mean, there must be wars and disasters? That can’t be right! Life is supposed to be comfortable; we shouldn’t have to suffer, right? Jesus says otherwise.
The first day of class, my freshman year at Notre Dame, I suffered a lower back injury, but I refused to acknowledge that I needed to allow it to heal. I tried to play club lacrosse as normal, but soon realized that physically, I could not. I didn’t want to accept that doing what I loved was being taken away from me. It was only about a year later that I was really able to accept and embrace the suffering, the cross that Jesus had given me in that injury. After embracing it, the Lord so clearly began to speak his love into my life through that pain, and his love changed my life.
Jesus is the one whose example we should be following and whose word we should live out. He tells us not to be terrified of the suffering that we will inevitably encounter, and not to deny it either. He shows us how to embrace the sufferings of this present age, in the midst of war, of disasters, and of daily life, by his own embrace of the cross. And he shows us hope, because through his suffering and death, by uniting our own suffering to his, we too can be raised on the last day in union with him.
Prayer
Gracious Father, you are our comfort, our guide, and our shield through the turbulent tide of personal trials and humanity’s distress. When the troubles of this world rise up against us, give us firm resolve to speak your truth and share your mercy. May we faithfully cling to your wisdom, made flesh in Christ Jesus and dwelling with us in the Spirit. For you are God forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Catherine of Alexandria is a patron saint of students of philosophy because she went toe-to-toe with the greatest minds of her age, and converted them to Christianity at the tender age of eighteen.
Very little of her life is known with certainty. The chief story that has been handed down to us reports that Catherine was born into a well-to-do family living in Alexandria at the beginning of the fourth century, and dedicated her life to education. Her studies led her to consider the truth about Christianity, and when she received a vision of Mary holding the child Jesus, she converted to the faith.
When the emperor Maxentius began persecuting Christians, Catherine visited him and rebuked his decision, even though she was just a teenager. Catherine began to argue with the emperor in defense of Christianity. Maxentius could not respond to Catherine’s arguments, so he gathered fifty learned philosophers to oppose her. When her reasoning converted them, Maxentius was enraged. He tried to seduce her and make her part of his court, but she refused and was beaten and imprisoned.
She continued to convert people who came to visit her in prison, including Maxentius' wife, and so Catherine was condemned to die upon a spiked wheel. When she was placed upon it, her hands were miraculously freed and the wheel shattered. She was then beheaded.
Catherine is often depicted with the broken wheel, as in the portrait above, which hangs in the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Another depiction of Catherine, the copper relief seen below, is from the chapel in the Fischer Graduate Residences community center. Catherine's wheel can be viewed in the lower right-hand corner. A few of Catherine's relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
When Joan of Arc received messages from heaven, it was Catherine’s voice that she heard. St. Catherine of Alexandria is a patron saint of philosophers, preachers, students—particularly women studying in higher education, and those who work with wheels or mills.
St. Catherine of Alexandria, patron saint of students and Christian philosophers—pray for us!
Image Credit: Bernardino Luini (Italian, ca. 1480-ca. 1532), St. Catherine of Alexandria, late 15th/early 16th century, oil on panel. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Fred J. Fisher, 1951.004.004.
