Today's Gospel

The Comfort Addiction

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're looking for just a word, a phrase, or an idea from the gospel so that we can anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew 11:20-24, "Then Jesus began to upgrade the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Woe to you Chorazin. Woe to you Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyra and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyra and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum. Will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you."

Some serious heat is being placed on some of these cities. Imagine being compared to Sodom, and Jesus just a couple of days ago is like, "Sodom and Gomorrah, big trouble." But now, Capernaum's been compared as worse than Sodom. And so I think we can read this. I think we can read Hades and judgment and sackcloth and ashes. And I think we can read through those things and just sort of gloss over them, just sort of pass through them. But what jumped out at me was sackcloth and ashes because we live in a culture of comfort. Don't we? We live in a culture that just wants to give us comfort and sell us comfort and get us addicted to comfort. And all of that leads us to become slaves of comfort and ultimately of a very deranged culture. And so we need penance. We need mortification. We need to deny ourselves in little ways every day and sometimes in big ways so that we can remain free, not to punish ourselves, so that we can remain free. God wants us free. To the extent that we are free is to the extent that we can love, and God wants us to love with our whole hearts, which means He wants our whole hearts to be free.

And so today, maybe we do a little sacrifice, a little mortification, a little penance so that God can keep us free. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.