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Today's Gospel
Be a Good Advertisement
6 min
Gospel
Lk 11:47-54
Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechari′ah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Be a Good Advertisement
There's a lot going on here today, you know? Beginning feels sort of a bit unjust, right? Jesus is saying, "You guys, you're building tombs for the prophets, but your father's killed the prophets, and now you're building the tombs. So basically, you consent to what your fathers did." Feels a bit harsh. I don't understand it. And that's why the way we do this each day, I don't need to understand that. Because all I need is a word or a phrase or an idea that God uses to capture my imagination, to intrigue my mind, to touch my heart, to move my soul, to take one step closer to him, to live the gospel this much more today than yesterday.
So I don't need to understand every single thing. And let's face it, it's impossible to understand every single thing anyway. So what is it that jumped out at you? What is it that jumped out at me? For me, again, it is this, the lawyers are getting beat up again here. "Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourself and you hindered those who were entering." So what is Jesus saying? He's saying, "You had this key of knowledge and you kept it from people. You took away from people. You had the key of knowledge and you kept it from people. And you didn't enter yourself. That's one thing. That's your decision. And it might be a horrible decision. But then an even worse decision, you hindered other people from entering There were other people who were trying to enter into what was good and true and beautiful and faithful. And you hindered them from entering. And that's grave. That is grave. And so we have to ask ourselves, right? It's like an examination of conscience. Are we hindering people from entering into God? Are we hindering people from entering into the church? Are we hindering people from entering into the Christian life?
You might say, "Well, I'm not doing anything to hinder anybody." And I know. I think that way too sometimes. But I'm wrong. I'm wrong, right? I don't have to do anything. Sometimes by doing nothing, I can hinder people from entering into God or the church or the Christian life. And sometimes just by being me, I can hinder people from entering into dynamic relationship with God, the church, the Christian life. How? Well, because in my sinfulness, in my arrogance, in my pride, in my selfishness, in my anger, in my list goes on and on, right? But when I'm all of those things, I'm a really bad advertisement for God. And when I'm all of those things, I'm a really bad advertisement for the church. And when I'm all of those things, I'm a really bad advertisement for the Christian life. And when I'm a bad advertisement for all those things, then I do hinder people from entering in to those things. Because they look at me and they think, well, if that's like what it's about to be Christian or Catholic or walking with God, then yeah, I don't want any part of that. Our responsibility is great. Every single one of us, our responsibility is great, not to hinder people from entering into God. Let's go out in the world today and try all our might not to hinder anybody from getting one step closer to God. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
