Daily Gospel Reflection

Your Most Important Appointment

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where we are exploring the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospels, and looking for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our day in the gospel today. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew 25: 1-13. "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight, there was a cry. 'Behold the bridegroom, come out to meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise replied, 'Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you. Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other maidens came, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.'"

What jumped out at you? What's Jesus saying to you today? The underlying message is one of preparation and preparation for the most important appointment of your life. And that is the appointment with God and the invitation to the kingdom. Are you prepared? Are you ready? If God came calling today, are you ready? I remember before I had kids, I'd go up on these planes, I thought, well, what if this plane's going to crash? I used to have all these thoughts. And I was just like, okay, the plane crashes, the plane crashes, I'm ready, and that's that. And I was never really scared of flying until I had kids. And then after I had kids, I'm like, okay, this plane better stay up in the air. Because I felt differently about life. And so there's different ways that we can be ready and not ready at the same time, right? But today's gospel is an invitation to be ready to enter the kingdom of heaven whenever God shows up and calls us. Are you ready? If you're not ready, what do you need to do to get back into that place? What do you need to do to ready yourself? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.