Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 5, 2023
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.
He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,
and he cried out in a loud voice,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
They were all amazed and said to one another,
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
The startling presence of the possessed man in today’s gospel forces us to confront the reality of the demonic. This is a scary thing. It can be especially difficult to accept in a world that regards demons as mere superstition. Nonetheless, as Pope Francis often reminds us, we must accept the existence of the devil and evil. But even once we do, we may not always consider the implications.
How often do believers think things like: “I’m a good person” or “I know that was wrong, but I had the right intentions”? However, if we accept the reality of evil, we must also recognize that evil is a fact of our own lives. We are all imperfect, and we all sin.
In succumbing to temptation, we withhold our love from God and surrender our will to the enemy. Earlier in this chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus was tempted by the devil and defeated the temptation. The presence of the demoniac reminds us that we, too, are tempted, but, unlike Jesus, we can be defeated. Even the great Saint Peter could become an obstacle to God’s will despite the best intentions, as this past Sunday’s Gospel reminded us.
However, this should not be a source of fear or despair. Recognizing it is deeply liberating. In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the people of Capernaum and cures the demoniac. The presence of Jesus and the authority of his words defeat the devil and expel evil. So, too, now, Jesus’ power delivers us from sin and evil.
Acknowledging our failures is a challenging act of humility, but once we do it, we are free to accept Jesus’ healing love and the grace to follow his words, the one path to happiness and eternal life.
Prayer
Father in heaven, from the days of Abraham and Moses, until our own day you have formed a people in the image of your Son. Bless your people with the gift of your kingdom. May we serve with our every desire and show love one for another even as you have loved us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day

Next to Pope St. John Paul II, Mother Teresa is perhaps the most famous holy person of modern times. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the two were friends and often visited one another.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born 1910 to Albanian parents living in Macedonia. Her father, a businessman, died when she was eight, and his absence cast the family into poverty. She found solace in her faith, and was very active in her Jesuit parish as a young girl.
When she turned 18, she followed a call to enter religious life and entered a community of sisters in Ireland, taking the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. A year later, she was on her way to India, where her work with the outcast would inspire the world.
She was assigned to a community in Calcutta where she taught at a school for girls. In time, she was named the principal of the school, and became known for her charity, unselfishness, and courage. She had a reputation for diligence and working hard, and she had a natural mind for organization and administration.
She experienced a profound encounter with Christ in 1946 while she was on her way to her annual retreat. She was riding on a train when she received some source of inspiration, a “call within a call,” as she put it. She was consumed with Jesus’ love for every person, and the desire to offer that love to others became a motivating force in her life from that moment on.
She left her community and established her own religious community of sisters, known as the Sisters of Charity. She understood Jesus to be calling her and others to offer his love to the poor and neglected.
She entered the slums of Calcutta and began to visit families, where she washed the wounds of children, cared for those who were abandoned and sick, and nursed those who were dying. She began each day by receiving Communion and then went out to the streets with a rosary to encounter “the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.”
By the 1950s other women had begun to join her in this work, and she started to send some to other parts of India. Eventually, the order would expand to include brothers and priests and would come to serve people on every continent. Today, some 4,500 members participate in her work in more than 130 countries.
With the emergence of global media technology, her story was shared with the world and many were drawn to her compassion. She received many honors for her work, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, which she humbly accepted “for the glory of God and in the name of the poor.”
After her death, it came to light that Mother Teresa was troubled by a long experience of dryness in prayer. About the time that she started the Sisters of Charity, she sought God in prayer and longed to feel the presence of Jesus in her spiritual life, but only found emptiness. She felt abandoned, and this feeling of separation led her to a more profound union with God—she was united with Jesus in his suffering and in his desire for love, and with the abandonment experienced by the poor people she served.
Mother Teresa died on this date in 1997, and is buried in the mother house of the Missionaries of Charity—her tomb is a place of pilgrimage and prayer today. She was canonized in 2016.
Mother Teresa made a visit to Notre Dame in 1974 to speak at a meeting of pastoral and social ministry leaders—a photo of her speaking hangs near the side entrance to the Basilica. A stained glass image of her stands in the chapel in Geddes Hall, and she is also depicted in a statue that stands in Visitation Hall, which houses the Institute for Educational Initiatives. She is also pictured here with Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of the University.
Notre Dame students have the opportunity to join in Mother Teresa’s work through the Center for Social Concerns, which sponsors International Summer Service Learning Programs around the world, including Calcutta. Students serve at a center for the destitute and dying, a school for children with developmental disabilities, and centers for female prisoners and orphans. The images below show Notre Dame students serving with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, you gave your life to radiating the love of Jesus to the abandoned--pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Teresa of Calcutta, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.