Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
September 1, 2021
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.
Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.”
But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, “To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent.”
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
To my mind, the most unbelievable part of this miraculous story is how after Simon’s mother-in-law was healed, she not only got up, but immediately served Jesus and his companions!
I encounter this gospel having given birth to my second child just a few weeks ago. My physical healing is coming incrementally. I’m living through a fog of exhaustion brought on by interrupted sleep and care of multiple small children. I grumbled when I first read how Simon’s mother-in-law immediately leapt up and got to work waiting on her visitors. How can that be? Wouldn’t she need rest, having just bested her fever? I know the last thing I want to do now, in my time of healing, is to wait on anyone.
Then I realized something. My limited imagination cannot fully grasp the thoroughness of healing depicted in this story. The newly-healed woman immediately gets up and welcomes her guests out of love, out of gratitude—and because her healing is thorough. It’s not still in process.
The depth and breadth of woundedness in our world is stunning. I know intimately the suffering of my own life and that of some friends and family. Additionally, every day there is news of further misery across the globe. I am inundated with stories of disasters both natural and human-made. There is sin, death, and destruction. And yet, Jesus came to heal all of it. Just as in this gospel story, he heals the sick and broken. He brings us the good news, and he calls us closer to him through the conversion of our hearts.
May we all pursue the complete healing offered by Jesus Christ and live in the fullness of the kingdom of God.
Prayer
Lord, in healing Simon’s mother-in-law you restored his family. We need you to restore health to us, and to our family and friends. Please guide us to do all we can to bring healing and comfort to our minds and bodies and to those we love. Remove our anxiety and give us that peace and hope that surpasses human understanding. Amen.
Saint of the Day
For a number of centuries, St. Giles was one of the most popular saints in the Church—he was numbered among the 14 Holy Helpers, saints invoked for the protection against the plague.
Because of his popularity, stories about St. Giles exaggerated the historical facts of his life. The most that we can tell for certain is that he was a hermit or monk who lived near the mouth of the Rhone river in southern France sometime around the seventh century.
One of the legends that arose around his life states that he was born in Athens, Greece. It is said that as a young man, he cured a beggar when he gave him his cloak. After working other wonders, he escaped the adulation of others by traveling to France to live in solitude in a cave.
He lived in such isolation that God sent a deer to nourish him with her milk. When the local king was hunting in the forest, his party found the deer and pursued it until it hid in Giles’ cave. The cave was covered by brush, and the hunters shot arrows into the obscured opening, trying to hit the deer; an arrow struck Giles instead. The king expressed remorse and promised to send his physician to care for Giles, but Giles refused any compensation, and instead encouraged the king to build a monastery. He agreed, on the condition that Giles serve as its abbot.
Because of his injury from the arrow, Giles is patron saint of those who have a disability, and his help is also invoked by those suffering from cancer. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Giles, patron saint of those with a disability or who are fighting cancer—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Giles is in the public domain. Last accessed April 2, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
