Today's Gospel is super short but extra meaningful to me! In the Catholic faith, when you get confirmed, you choose a Saint to be named after. The general idea is that you are choosing a Saint to model yourself after and one who can pray with you from Heaven. I was confirmed as an adult, and I took this process very seriously. I chose a Saint that pretty much no one knows about and there is almost nothing to be found about, with the exception of this and two other places in scripture!
Why would I choose this Saint? The non biblical reason is that my Great Aunt's name is Joanne. She never married or had children of her own, but she was a favorite among her nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. She was someone I looked up to all my life. No one in our family named any of their children after her, and since I didn't have any of my own, I wanted to take her name.
That reason is a great for a youth preparing for confirmation, right? They often take names that sound cool or are one of the Saints they happened to just hear and learn about, but I needed more for sure! The more I dug around, the more this woman resonated with me.
In Luke's gospel, here she is, mentioned accompanying Jesus with the 12, with Mary Magdalene, Susanna and some unnamed women.
This woman is right there with Jesus as he is doing his public ministry. She is right there by his side supporting him financially and tending to the needs of the group! We know this didn't come without some cost to her because we are told she is the wife of Herod's steward Chuza. That reference alone helps us to understand the danger she would be in if found out!
We learn from these short lines in scripture that she was healed in some way. We don't know if she had evil spirits or what infirmities, just that Jesus healed her in some way and she devoted herself to him and his ministry! Not only was she present during Jesus public ministry, but we find her at the end as well! We are not told if she was at the foot of the cross during the passion, but she was one of the women at the tomb (Luke 24:9-10)!
I want to have a faith, love and devotion to Jesus like Joanna. I have been healed in so many ways by Jesus! I want to put personal comforts and safety aside and serve him! I want to serve him out of the many resources I have been blessed with and serve him out of my time and talents. I want to be the kind of witness she was, telling others what she had seen and heard!
She is a saint we don't often think or hear about, yet she served the Lord mightily! We don't need the big fanfare and hoopla, we need to have a sincere, thankful and loving heart.
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