Today's Gospel

The Key to Compassion

Do you have anyone in your life who is always trying to prove you wrong or always getting after you about different things? Obviously, Jesus had that too and we have another encounter today with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Welcome to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke, 20:27-40. It came to Jesus some sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother." Now there were seven brothers and the first took a wife and died without children. And the second and a third took her, and likewise, all seven left no children and died. Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be for the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given him marriage, but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection." But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Now, he is not God of the dead, but God of the living. For all live in Him. And some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well," for they no longer dared to ask him any questions. So remember each day we're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea that jumps out at you and that captures your attention, that the Holy Spirit uses to feed you, to intrigue you, to spark your curiosity. I think for me, what's very interesting today's reading is the scribes say, "Teacher, you have spoken well." That's the best I got for Jesus. I mean, he's the guy, he's raising Lazarus from the dead. He's healing people. He's making the blind see and the lame walk every day, over and over, every single day. And the highest praise that we can get from the scribes is, "Teacher, you have spoken well." I started out today's discussion with the idea, do you have someone in your life who's always trying to prove you wrong? Or maybe you have someone in your life who doesn't matter what you do, they're never happy. Clearly described during that camp. Pharisees are in that camp. And when you have those people in your life, how do you respond to them? Jesus obviously has great love. I think He has great pity for these people. And I think that when we have those people in our lives, I think to go beyond their words, to go beyond their actions. Think what people do and say is interesting, why people do what they do and say what they say is fascinating.

And sometimes when I have these people in my life, I just think to myself, I'm like, whoa, wow, what happened to you? Something had to happen to you for you to become that way because little kids aren't born that way. They're like, they're not born that way. And so I think that when we realize, okay, something must have happened to you in order for you to become this way, I think that is the start of compassion for us, and really a deep empathy, and not just a human empathy, but ultimately a spiritual empathy for people in our lives who they're just never happy. It doesn't matter what we do, they're never happy, or they're always attacking us, or criticizing us, or that sort of thing. So let's go out there with that question today. Not to ask people, but to think to ourselves when we encounter these difficult people, like, what happened to you? And are we praying for those people? Because that's the call of the Gospel. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.