Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 21, 2019
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”
But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”
And he said to the crowd, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’
“Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, ‘You have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
“So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
I was raised to feel an obligation to provide for my family. It’s part of who I am. As a father of three daughters (two ND grads), I feel the obligation to do for them what couldn’t be done for me as I grew up. I work to provide. I enjoy my vocation, but I also feel the burden of obligation. I’ve often said to my wife “If I die tomorrow, I’ve worked too hard. If I live a long life, it will have been worth it.”
Why do we feel this way? Do we really believe that our 401K’s provide security? Is that the security we seek? Or do our financial means shield us from the trust we need to have in the one who provides everything that we truly need?
I was given an opportunity to take a break late in my career when an upcoming merger provided a “package” for me to take some time off. I decided to do a mid-life road trip around the country, two weeks after receiving my Masters of Theological Studies degree from Notre Dame. It was the spiritual awakening I was seeking. While driving through the high plains of Wyoming, in a 15 year old vehicle that had already broken down once, no cell phone coverage, and not a car in sight, I suddenly felt a dependence on God that I had not felt in years. I realized why post-modern society tends to forget about God.
We do everything to shield ourselves, by “storing up treasures” so that we don’t “need” God. How can we let go in our daily lives, in order to place our trust in the one who really provides eternal security? This is still my daily struggle.
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. Ursula's legend has its origins in an ancient stone in a church in Cologne, Germany. How an image of this obscure German saint ended up in a stained glass window in a basilica in northern Indiana is its own unique story.
In the church of St. Ursula in Cologne, there is a stone with a Latin inscription from c. 400. The inscription indicates that a senator named Clematius received divine visions directing him to rebuild a ruined basilica on that very spot in honor of several women who had been martyred there. The visions did not specify the names of the women who were martyred.
But, as the visions seemed to indicate, a number of women had been martyred in Cologne, and they must have been highly revered by the community to have a church built in their honor. How the church had fallen into ruin was unclear. Since the church was named for a Saint Ursula, one of the women, one can deduce, must have been named Ursula.
Legend has filled in the gaps in this record. Ursula, the story goes, was the daughter of a Christian king in Britain, and betrothed to the son of a pagan king. Because Ursula wanted to remain a virgin, she asked for a three-year delay to the marriage. Thus, Ursula took her ladies-in-waiting and escaped from England. Eventually, Ursula and her companions ended up in Cologne, where they were captured by Attila and his Huns and killed for their faith around 383.
When Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World, he named the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean in honor of the virgin St. Ursula and her companions. St. Ursula is also the patron saint of the Ursuline Order of nuns, who founded schools for the education of girls and women throughout Europe. She is the patron saint of Catholic education, of students and teachers, and of the University of Paris.
When the Congregation of Holy Cross established Notre Dame, St. Ursula was one of the patrons invoked by the French priests and brothers of that order in intercession for the success of the University.
St. Ursula's relics rest in the reliquary chapel of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. In one stained glass image from the Basilica, St. Ursula holds the flag of England in one hand, and the flowering palm of martyrdom in the other.
St. Ursula, patron saint of Catholic education—pray for us!