Daily Gospel Reflection

A Question of Disbelief

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we take a few minutes together to reflect on the gospel of the day, to allow Jesus to speak into our lives, to allow the gospels to influence, to inform the thoughts and decisions and actions of our day. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 14 through 22. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And he went to the synagogue as was his custom on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read. And there was given to him a book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, "Today, the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?" What jumps out at you today? It's hard to go past that last one, isn't it? Is this not Joseph's son? And haven't we all had that said about us at some time in our lives, where we do something that is outside people's understanding of us or outside the box that people want to put us in, and they say, "Well, hold on a minute. Isn't this the kid I went to school with, or isn't this the guy who this, or isn't this the girl who that?" And it's a question of disbelief, right? This isn't possible because this is just Joseph's son. Isn't this Joseph's son? Sometimes you're watching a movie and there's just these epic moments, right? Well, this is one of those moments. And you've got Jesus. You've got Jesus coming back to his hometown. You've got Jesus going to the synagogue. You've got Jesus reading from the Scriptures. Think about that. You've got Jesus reading from the Scriptures. Imagine being there, right? And Jesus is reading the Scriptures to you.

And then he sits down and they're all looking at him. And Jesus says, it's like one of those moments right here. Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. It's one of the greatest moments in history right there. We just read it, "Oh, it's another reading." Yeah, Matthew gets on here and he talks to us each day, and he reads the reading, and then we think about it a little bit, and we pick out a word, a phrase, an idea. But no, right? Every day we're experiencing these historic moments. And this is an epic one.

Jesus says, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." The reality is, is that the Scriptures are being fulfilled in your hearing, in your sight, every single day of your life. The question is, do we see it? Do we hear it? Are we aware of it? Do we observe it? Are we mindful of it? Or are we lost, caught up in our worldly thinking and unaware of the way God is working with us, in us, around us, through us because He is. God is working with us, in us, around us, through us. Let's be more mindful of that as we make our way through the day. Have a great day and remember, be bold, be Catholic.