Today's Gospel

Are You Being Persecuted?

What is it that jumps out at you today? So many words, so many phrases, so many ideas. "Jesus lifted up his eyes." Maybe that's what caught your attention. Talking to his disciples, maybe the word "disciple" is what the Holy Spirit uses to get your attention and to reaffirm your discipleship. Jesus talk about the poor. Maybe you're thinking about the poor, praying for the poor, trying to do something for the poor. Talk about the kingdom of God. Do we spend enough time thinking about the kingdom of God? Do we spend enough time striving for the kingdom of God? He's talking about weeping and laughing and people hating you and people loving you. And he's talking about how their fathers treated the prophets well or poorly. And he's talking about, "blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil." A lot of people forget the next bit, which is, "on account of the son of man," because there are people who hate us and exclude us and revile us and cast our name out as evil because of things that we did that have nothing to do with the Son of Man, and certainly the Son of Man would not endorse. And I think sometimes we can think we're being persecuted, but are we being persecuted because we're living in Christ and doing His work, or are we being persecuted because we're allowing our own arrogance to get the better of us? But we come together each day, we spend just a few minutes together to reflect on the gospel. It's a great habit to get into, it's a powerful habit to get into. And there are many ways to study the scriptures. And our approach during these moments together each day is to learn how to listen to the voice of God in our lives through the scriptures, to allow God to speak to us, whatever it is that's happening in your life today, to allow God to speak to you through a word or phrase or an idea. It may be through the story, but it may not be. It may be just one word that God uses to capture your attention so that he can speak into your heart through that word. I pick out a word or phrase an idea each day and I speak to you about it, and hopefully that's helpful to you. But let's not forget that the real goal here is for you to pick out your own word, your own phrase, your own idea, and allow God to speak to you about that throughout the moments of your day. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.