Daily Gospel Reflection

Listen at Your Own Risk

Welcome to your daily reflection of the gospel. We are exploring the radical and relevant nature of Jesus's life and teachings and each day looking for a word or phrase or an idea from today's gospel to anchor our day in that word's phrase or idea so that we can live the gospel more richly with every passing day. Today's reading comes from John chapter 6, verses 60 through 69. "Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, 'This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?' But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, 'Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe,' for Jesus knew from the first who they were that did not believe and who it was that should betray him. And he said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by my father.' After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, 'Will you also go away?' Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'"

So this is a pivotal moment in the life of Jesus. He's presented the Bread of Life discourse, and people are like, "Too much. We're out of here." And we see that at every different time in the church, right? We see people saying, "Well, that's too much. I'm out of here." And we see it even on a parish level, right? Something will happen, and people say, "Eh, that's too much. I'm moving to a different parish." The word or the idea that strikes me today is the objection. And the objection is, "This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?" And I find that fascinating because it's not, "This is a hard teaching. Who can believe it?" It's not, "This is a hard teaching. This is really hard to believe this one." It's, "This is a hard teaching. We can't even listen to it. It's so hard." And so that's a form of resistance. That's a form of just outright rejection, right? And not even willing to hear Jesus out. It's not someone saying, "Well, all right, Jesus, I'm really struggling with this one. Can you break it down for me a little bit more? Jesus, can you explain it to us a little bit better because I'm really struggling to get my head around this?" No, it's like it's a complete rejection. "We don't even want to listen to this."

And I think it's good for us to be mindful of where are we like that in our lives, okay? And it may be with God. It may be with some teaching of the church. It might be a, "I don't even want to listen to that one," okay? Or it may be in other areas of our lives, maybe in our marriage. Maybe your wife's saying something to you, your husband's saying something to you, and like, "Eh, don't even want to listen to that one." Maybe it's at work. Maybe there's a colleague trying to help you grow. Maybe your boss is saying something to you. Maybe a customer's saying something, and you're, "Eh, we don't want to listen to that." And so when we are challenged, how do we respond to challenge? Is the thing that strikes me today. What's the word, phrase, or idea that you're going to anchor your life in the gospel with today? Have an amazing day. Remember, be bold, be Catholic.