Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 20, 2025
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”‘
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.”
When I was a freshman at Notre Dame, one of the classes I took my very first semester was an introduction to theater. The class was held in the movie theater at DPAC, and this elective class was a fun way to begin my college career.
In that class, we learned about several aspects of theater, including acting. As part of this unit on acting, we learned that often the key to understanding a character is to simply figure out what the character wants. I decided to apply this strategy to better understand the “rich man” in today’s parable: what does the rich man want?
The rich man tells us what he wants quite directly. He wants to “rest, eat, drink, and be merry.” These goals are quite relatable. In fact, these are things that every human needs to survive. It is not the goals of this man that are objectionable; it is rather the means to his end that are problematic.
The means to his end reveals that the rich man sought comfort through self-centered accumulation rather than gratitude or generosity. His desire for rest and joy was not wrong—but his path to it ignored God and others. True fulfillment comes when our means reflect love, faith, and trust in God’s providence.
Prayer
Father, creator of all, you are the center of all life. Everything in this world points to you and leads us to you. Today we ask you for the grace to keep you at the center of our lives, to use you as the reference point of all our thoughts, words, and actions. Help us to get ourselves out of the center of attention, and put you there. In serving you, we hope to give our best selves to all whom we encounter this day. 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.
