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Today’s reflection is published in Give Us This Day, July 2025, from Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 13, 2025

Where God Dwells

On my first day of seminary in 1974, I realized the word of God in front of me, not abstract in a library or echoed in a choir. Walking around campus of the Univesity of Notre Dame for the first time with a new classmate, a man collapsed in front of us. His two young children screamed for help. We huddled around the man, my classmate began CPR. Someone called for an ambulance while a priest anointed him. Unfortunetly, the young father died on the sidewalk.

Even though I never met the oldest son who came to campus as a freshman nor the mother who had remained home because of illness, the family claims a place in my heart. The message of God is manifest before our eyes. Our neigbhor cannot be ignored, not the ill or the children, not the stranger nor the unbeliever. Our neighbor is not bound by ethnic identity or mental health, not by age or social status. Our neighbor is where God dwells, especially the one who needs care, who longs to be seen. As Christians, we carry the memories of the burdened in our hearts, filling us with love of humanity and hope for heaven.

I learned lessons early that broke through walls of classrooms. Only Jesus shows us how to bend down to hold the mystery and beauty of illness, anguish, and even death. Only Jesus shows us how to herald the Scriptures in community and manifest them on days we least expect.    

Fr. Ronald Patrick Raab

Fr. Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC, serves as religious superior at Holy Cross House, a medical retirement facility at Notre Dame, Indiana. He is a retreat director, award-winning author, and visual artist. Learn more at ronaldraab.com