Daily Gospel Reflection

Embrace Your Interruptions

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're exploring the genius of the gospel and looking for one word, one phrase, one idea to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading is one of those really short ones. Sometimes it takes us a moment to get settled in to get focused in. But when they're this short, yeah, it can be all over before you get focused in. So the reading today is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 verses 13 through 15. "They brought children to Jesus, and he laid his hands on them and prayed.

The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me and do not hinder them. For as such, belongs the kingdom of heaven.' And he laid his hands on them before going away." Jumps out at you today. It's interesting this dynamic between Jesus, the disciples, and then the people. And today, the people are children. The disciples are rebuking the people, basically saying, "Leave Jesus alone." And Jesus is saying, "It's okay. Let the children come to me." And of course, the disciples probably coming from a good place. They're probably trying to protect Jesus. I can't imagine how he was hounded everywhere he went by all manner of people. But we see over and over throughout the gospels, this scenario, this dynamic. The other thing that strikes me here, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately, is that these children are interrupting Jesus, and certainly that's how the disciples see it. They're like, these kids are interrupting Jesus, and the disciples are saying, "Well, leave him alone, stop interrupting him." But the reality is, is that all of Jesus' ministry was made up of interruptions. You think about every story, he goes here, he goes there, and then he gets interrupted, and that becomes like the main event. The interruption becomes the main event.

And I've been thinking a lot about this lately, and I've been thinking like, how do we deal with interruptions? How do you deal with interruptions in your life? How do I deal with interruptions in my life? We tend to look at them as bothersome. We certainly look at them as inconvenient. And very often, the people who are causing the interruptions, we don't necessarily have the best feelings towards them in that moment either. And yet, Jesus loved these interruptions. Jesus made these interruptions the center of his ministry. And so maybe the lesson or the invitation for us today is to look for great interruptions, is to be mindful of interruptions, and to look for these great interruptions and see them as the hand of God or the workings of God in our lives. Have an amazing day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.