Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
October 20, 2019
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’
“For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
“God, please let my toddler go just one week without another cold.”
“God, please let the baby sleep through the night.”
“God, please ease my friend’s anxiety.”
“God, please heal my mother-in-law’s cancer.”
These are all prayers I’ve found myself saying. And they are all prayers which seemingly went unanswered. Jesus tells us to pray always and not to lose heart. But how can I not lose heart when I feel like my prayers are not heard?
I have come to realize that when I focus mostly on what I want God to do, I am depriving myself of what I need most of all: an intimate relationship with God. St. Augustine observed, “How easy it is for a man to desire all manner of things from the Lord and yet not desire the Lord himself; as though the gift could be sweeter than the Giver!”
Our God is not like the dishonest judge in Jesus’s parable. We do not need to do what the widow did, begging him for what we need until he finally gives in. God desires for us to offer our needs in prayer, certainly, but then we need to trust that God is a good Father who gives good things to us. We have the assurance that our prayers will be answered, though perhaps not always in the way we expect.
When we trust God in this way, our prayer becomes a place of encounter rather than a list of requests. Far more than an answer to any prayer, God wants to give us himself. So let us pray always and not lose heart, confident that our Father wills our good. Let us be eager to know more deeply the giver of every good and perfect gift.
Prayer
Our Father, have you heard our cries? Have you heard our calls, our small voices, hoarse and tight? You tell us not to lose heart. Wash our hearts with grace so that we may trust your promise, so that our heavy hearts will not be lost in the night. You promise to send your justice, bright and burning. Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth? Give us this faith, O God. Quicken our hearts, spark and winnow our hope into a flame of love that expects your justice, and rejoices when it blossoms. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Paul of the Cross was an 18th century Italian mystic who founded the Passionist order after receiving a vision.
He was born in 1694 in northern Italy near Genoa. His father owned a store, and moved the family frequently in an effort to make ends meet in better markets. His parents bore 16 children, but only six survived childhood—Paul was the second of those.
Paul went to a school for boys run by a priest and was an excellent student. He returned home when he was 15, and began to gather other boys in the neighborhood into a community of sorts dedicated to prayer and good works. He went on to teach catechism in nearby parishes.
When he was 19, Paul had a conversion in which he saw that he was not cooperating with God's grace enough, and dedicated himself to a life of prayer and discipline. Soon, Jesus’ suffering and death—his passion—became a central focus for the young man because he believed it was the most important thing for people to know about God.
“It is an excellent and holy practice to call to mind and meditate on our Lord's passion, since it is by this path that we shall arrive at union with God,” he wrote. “In this, the holiest of all schools, true wisdom is learned, for it was there that all the saints became wise.”
When he was 26 years old, Paul experienced a vision during prayer in which he heard God calling him to establish a new religious community dedicated to Jesus’ passion. In the vision, he saw himself clothed in the habit that his community would wear: a long, black robe with a white symbol stitched in the center—a white cross above a white heart that held the words, “passion of Jesus Christ.” The new community was grounded in poverty and solitude and had a mission to encourage people to meditate on the suffering and death of Jesus.
"The service of God does not require good words and good desires,” Paul said, “but efficient workmanship, fervor and courage." Paul’s first follower was his own brother, John Baptist. The two moved to Rome to seek approval for the new order, and were invited to help establish a new hospital.
The brothers studied theology and were ordained priests by the pope in 1727. They went out to rural, underserved areas to preach missions. Paul in particular was an excellent preacher and the community began to grow as more and more people were touched by their ministry and other young men wanted to join their efforts.
When Paul preached, people listened—he would scourge himself and hold the cross to urge people to call upon the sufferings of Jesus to reform their ways. One army officer told him, "Father, I have been in great battles without ever flinching at the cannon's roar, but when I listen to you I tremble from head to foot."
As he grew in holiness, Paul was given supernatural gifts—he could see into the future, and sick people became well through his prayer and touch. At times he could appear to people who were far away.
When Paul died in 1775, his community held 180 priests and brothers, and also included a convent of contemplative sisters. St. Vincent Strambi was a Passionist priest who was named a bishop. The Passionists came to America in 1852—here, the feast day for St. Paul of the Cross is perpetually transferred to Oct. 20; the rest of the world celebrates his feast day on Oct. 19.
Relics of St. Paul of the Cross rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus.
St. Paul of the Cross, you urge us to seek the “wisdom of the saints” in Jesus’ suffering and death—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Paul of the Cross is in the public domain. Last accessed October 4, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
