Today's Gospel

The Resentment Remedy

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 7 through 12. "Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receive, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. But what man of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." What jumps out at you today? Again, it's one of these readings with phraseology that we're very familiar with, that we've heard many, many times. But the ask, the seek, the knock. What is it that this time in your life that you need to be asking God for? What is it at this time in your life you need to be seeking from God? What is it at this time in your life that you need to be knocking on God's door? And what is it at this time in your life that you need to ask of others, seek from others? Whose doors do you need to knock on?

Because one of the things we need to be mindful of is that people who love us want to give us all of what we need and most of what we want. Jesus says here, he says if your child asked for a bread, you wouldn't give him a stone. If he asked for a fish, you wouldn't give him a serpent. And people who love us want to give us what we need, all of what we need, and most of what we want. And very often, the thing that gets in the way is that they don't know what we need, and they don't know what we want, because we don't ask, we don't seek, we don't knock, we don't speak up. And so let's give the people around us an opportunity to love us, to love us deeply by speaking up, by asking, by seeking, by knocking. Because very often, there are things we need or want. People close to us have no idea because we haven't shared it with them. And that's not fair to them. It's not fair to us. And it creates a situation where we can have almost premeditated resentment because we don't tell somebody we need something, and then they don't fulfill that need. And then we resent the fact that they don't fulfill the need, but we didn't share with them what we needed to start with. And so these premeditated resentments can really build up in a relationship, and they can build up in our relationship with people, and they can build up in our relationship with God. Ask, seek, knock. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. So one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.