Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
September 10, 2024
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.
It’s strange that Jesus took time to prayerfully and thoughtfully consider who his Apostles should be and still chose Judas Iscariot. On a surface level, this seems like a major lapse in decision-making because the twelve Apostles were meant to be his closest confidants and most persuasive missionaries, yet Jesus chose a man who would later sell him out for silver.
Shouldn’t he have seen the warning signs, and shouldn’t the grace from his prayer helped him to avoid such a major mistake? But maybe the point of prayer and active discernment with God isn’t to avoid all human suffering. Maybe it’s something much, much more meaningful.
My wife and I have had to make many complex decisions over the years. We’ve moved a young family cross-country, switched jobs, switched industries, and are currently determining how to deal with a family member’s illness. Each of these decisions carried its own ambiguities.
Many of life’s “what if” scenarios defy planning. We contemplate probabilities, weighing the outcomes, increasing rather than reducing anxiety. In these moments, I take comfort that the decision process matters more than the outcome, and I take each decision as an opportunity to realign my highest aspirations and hopes with who God calls me to be. The exact outcome is often out of my hands more than I’d like to admit, yet the grace from making a decision with God’s input through prayer all but assures that my primary vocations as a husband and father will grow stronger and will receive unexpected blessings.
This, of course, is how Jesus’ decision to select Judas Iscariot plays out in the gospels. It is through Judas’ treachery, not despite it, that the world discovers who Jesus really is, and it is through Jesus’ death that we share eternal life. God’s plan for us is revealed because of Jesus’ alignment with God’s will and not from simple calculations on worldly outcomes.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you spent a night in prayer before you announced your disciples and the beginning of our Church. The Twelve placed their faith, hope, and trust in both God and man. May I join this group in all its fullness: faith in Jesus Christ, hope in his mercy and trust in his provident care. I ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Nicholas of Tolentino was a priest in 13th century Italy who is known for his miracles among the poor and neglected.
His parents were childless until they visited a shrine of St. Nicholas and asked for a son who would serve God. The couple received a boy and named him after the saint who had helped them conceive.
As a child, Nicholas imitated hermits and would hide in the caves near his home and pray. As he matured, he heard God calling him to dedicate his life to prayer and reflection, and when he heard an Augustinian priest preaching one day, he resolved to join that order of priests.
While in formation, he complemented his theological studies by distributing food to the poor at the monastery gate. His first miracle happened when he placed his hand on the head of a sick boy and said, “The good God will heal you.” The boy was instantly cured. A few years later he was ordained a priest, and became famous for using the same words to heal a woman who was blind.
He settled in a monastery in Tolentino, and spent the rest of his life there preaching in the streets. Though the city was torn by civil discord, he raised people’s attention to heaven. Many were moved to conversion upon hearing him.
One man, however, was not moved. He was used to a wayward, evil life, and whenever he came upon Nicholas preaching in the streets, he would try to shout him down and disrupt the crowd’s concentration. Nicholas refused to be intimidated—he was resolute and patient, and this steadfastness began to have an effect on the man’s heart.
One day, the man brought friends to fight with swords in the street near Nicholas as he preached, so as to cause people to scatter. Nicholas persisted, though, and the man put down his sword and began to listen. Afterwards, he apologized to Nicholas and began to reform his life.
Soon after this, Nicholas became a sought-after confessor and would sometimes spend the whole day hearing confessions. He also went into the slums of Tolentino to care for the poor and sick—many stories of conversions and healings were attributed to his work. “Say nothing of this,” Nicholas would say after an extraordinary event due to his intercession. “Give thanks to God, not to me. I am only an earthen vessel, a poor sinner.”
Nicholas spent the last year of his life suffering from an illness that killed him. He got up from his bed only once, to hear the confession of one who was burdened with a great sin, but refused to speak to anyone but Nicholas. He died on this date in 1305 and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Nicholas is patron saint of babies, those who work on the water, and those who are dying. His image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
St. Nicholas of Tolentino, you were the monk who inspired conversions with miracles and preaching, pray for us!