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, 2020
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.”
Today’s gospel reading emphasizes the importance of vigilance. In the central metaphor of Jesus’ message today, there is a master who attends a wedding feast and his servants await his return.
I have attended more than a few weddings in my day and I am not embarrassed to say that I celebrate with great enthusiasm (think wedding feast at Cana: we need more wine over here!). If I were to arrive home from a wedding with servants awaiting my return, what I would need is someone to make sure my suit is hung properly and ready to go out for cleaning, a tall glass of water, and a freshly made bed with clean sheets. Maybe even a foot massage because of all the dancing! But I would really just want to go to sleep.
What we hear in this gospel, instead, is that the master who finds his servants awaiting his return comes to serve them instead of asking them to serve him. He lets them recline at his table. He replaces his wedding garment with a serving garment. He proceeds to wait on them.
Of course, this is exactly what Jesus does for his disciples when he washes their feet at the Last Supper in the Gospel of John. Jesus teaches us that the nature of the master, or “the Lord,” is to teach us how to serve. As we wait for his return with vigilance, let us follow his example and serve one another. What better way could there be to demonstrate our vigilance?
Prayer
Compared to what you have done for me, Abba, everything I can do for others is a mere pittance. Yet it means so much to you, and does so much in bringing about the fullness of your Kingdom. I ask of your Spirit this day the grace to “wait on someone.”
A smile, a kind word, yielding on the street or in the meeting room, making peace with someone whom I’ve been holding at arm’s length, forgiving someone who has hurt me – whatever you ask me to do, may I have the grace to do it.
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.
