Memorial of St. John Neumann, Bishop

Today's Mass Readings

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.’ And he said to him, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’” Very fitting that the reading today is the call of Nathanial on this feast of St. John Neumann, a bishop, and apostle of the Lord in the United States! God calls us in various ways, some as religious, some as lay people. But we must all remember that we are part of the body of Christ, and Christ is our Head. St. John Neumann put it beautifully: “Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission… God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, . . . for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him.”

Reflection by Br. Maximilian Burkhart, OSB