Today's Gospel

Stop Resisting the Truth

Welcome back to "Radical and Relevant," where each day we explore the genius of the gospel, looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea to allow us-- to allow the gospel to penetrate our hearts. Sometimes, we get familiar with the gospel, and we can hear it, we can read it, and it can fail to penetrate our hearts. And so, our exercise each day is looking for that word, that phrase, that idea, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us to that word, phrase, or idea, so that it can penetrate our hearts. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke, 24:1-12. On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise? And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the 11 and to the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idol tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home wondering at what had happened.

What is it that jumps out at you today? Often we talk about words, we talk about phrases. But today, I'd like to talk about an idea that struck me. And the idea is that Jesus told the disciples over and over and over again what was going to happen. He told them he was going to suffer. He told them he was going to be killed. He told them he was going to rise on the third day. And yet still, they seem incapable of grasping what had happened. Was Jesus not believable? Why was it that they struggled to believe what Jesus had said to them? They'd seen His miracles over and over again. They'd seen His ability to overcome death in raising Lazarus from the dead. And yet still, they struggle to get their heads around it. And for you and me, right, we sit here with the benefit of 2,000 years of looking back on these events and we can be maybe even impatient with the disciples or maybe even frustrated with the disciples. Guys, why aren't you getting it? He's telling you over and over again. He told you over and over again. Why aren't you getting it? And of course, the disciples, they're just like you and me. We can be slow to take on even truth and reality, not opinions, but truth and reality. We can be slow, even when confronted with the truth of reality. We can be slow to take that on board.

And so to think of the disciples as being different from you and I in this way would be a mistake. And the question I ask myself today is: what has God been telling me over and over and over again that I am refusing to acknowledge or struggling to adopt? What is it that God has been telling me over and over and over and over again that I've been resisting? And how will my life change when I stop resisting and I surrender to whatever it is God is saying to me and allow that to live in my life as truth and reality. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.