Carry the gospel with you

Gospel reading of the day:

Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread. When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

Reflection on the gospel: This is a difficult and cramped passage, one that is not easy to understand. It essentially emphasizes the lack of understanding by the pharisees and disciples alike. Neither of them has a true understanding of who Jesus is and what his actions mean. Moreover, they doubt his power. So too it is with us. We often confess his power with our lips but doubt in our hearts its relevance in our lives. Becoming people who trust God is a difficult task, but practice makes perfect, and reliance on God’s power today will bring about great things for us.

Saint of the day: Saint Claude de la Colombière, S.J., who was born in Grenoble, France on February 2, 1641, was the confessor of Saint Margaret-Marie Alacoque. His feast day is the day of his death, February 15. He was a missionary and ascetical writer, born of noble parentage.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1659. After fifteen years of religious life in the Jesuits, he made a vow, as a means of attaining the utmost possible perfection, to observe faithfully the Rule and Constitutions of his order under penalty of sin. Those who lived with him attested that this vow was kept with great exactitude.

In 1674 Claude was made superior at the Jesuit house at Paray-le-Monial, where he became the spiritual director of Saint Margaret-Marie Alacoque and was thereafter a zealous apostle of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1676 he was sent to England as preacher to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, afterwards Queen of Great Britain. He lived the life of a Religious even in the Court of St. James and was as active a missionary in England as he had been in France. Although encountering many difficulties, he was able to guide Saint Margaret Mary by letter.

His zeal soon weakened his vitality and a throat and lung trouble seemed to threaten his work as a preacher. While awaiting his recall to France he was suddenly arrested and thrown into prison, denounced as a conspirator. Thanks to his title of preacher to the Duchess of York and to the protection of the King of France, Louis XIV, whose subject Claude was, he escaped death but was condemned to exile in 1679. The last two years of his life were spent at Lyon where he was spiritual director to the young Jesuits, and at Paray-le-Monial, where he repaired for his health. He died February 15, 1682 in France of natural causes. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1992.

Spiritual reading: Perfection consists in doing the will of God, not in understanding his designs. (Claude de la Colombiere, S.J.)