Daily Gospel Reflection

Nothing Will Stay Hidden

I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we take a look at the gospel, we look to anchor our day in the gospel. As we listen to the gospel reading, we are searching for a word or phrase or an idea that jumps out at you that God is using to talk to you that day and that you can anchor your day in. Today's gospel reading is from the Gospel of Luke chapter 8:16-18.

"No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be made known and come to light. Take heed, then, how you hear. For to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away."

What jumps out at you today? There's some scary lines in here. And the genius of paradox is always present in the gospel, Jesus often teaching us in paradox, but there are some scary lines in here. There are some confusing lines in here. Jesus says-- one of the things he says is, "For nothing that is hidden will stay hidden." Now, I don't know about you, but I suspect we've probably all got some thoughts, maybe some deeds, things in our past, stuff about ourselves, stuff about our lives that we very much would like to stay hidden. But Jesus is saying nothing that is hidden will stay hidden. He said, "It will be known. It will come to light." And I think that can be a bit scary. I think it's important to really think about that.

And then he says, "Take heed and hear," like, "Hear me, really. I want you really to hear me," "To him who has will more be given. And from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away from him." What does that mean? What is he saying? Fascinating. The phrase that struck me today was-- in some translations, it's, "Even what he has will be taken away from him." But in this particular translation, it says, "Even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him," which infers that he thinks he's got it, but he doesn't really have it, even though he thinks he has it. And I think that's fascinating. And it's challenging.

We think, "Okay. What have we got? What don't we have? What's going to be taken away from us? What's going to be given to us? How does all this work?" And in all of this, what we're really trying to do is we're trying to say, "All right. How does it work, Jesus? How does it work so that I can play by the rules or follow the rules or whatever." And in all of this, Jesus is never saying that. In all of this, Jesus is saying, "Hey, there's a lot at play here. It may seem complicated to you. It really isn't. Just listen to my voice. Let me guide you. Don't try and think you can be prepared for every situation or have the answer to every eventuality. Listen to my voice. And in each situation, in each circumstance, I will guide you." And it's that trust. It's that deep trust in him that he's calling us to, whereas very often what we want to do is we want to gather all this knowledge so we can have a deep trust in our own ability. And that is the mistake he's trying to guide us away from. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.