Daily Gospel Reflection

God is With Us

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we read, we listen to the gospel of the day, looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, 1:18-25. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolve to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you will call Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet. 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name will be Emmanuel,' which means God is with us. When Joseph woke from his dream, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had born a son. And he called his name Jesus."

What jumps out at you today? Two things for me. One is how God is using dreams in the life of Joseph. We see throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, God using dreams to communicate with people. And God would speak to Joseph in another dream to save Jesus' life, to get him over to Egypt, and then to bring him back from Egypt. And so God is using these dreams and makes me wonder how is God using our dreams? And sometimes we have crazy dreams, right? Well, we think we're having crazy dreams. What do they mean? And what do we do with them? Do we just throw them away? Do we just discard them? Encourage you, next time you have a crazy dream, just to write it down, just to write down your crazy dream and not try to work out necessarily what it means right there and then, but to come back to it a week later and take a look at it and see maybe what might be getting said here and to do it again a week later, maybe to do it three or four times.

The other thing that jumps out at me, a phrase that jumps out at me today is the phrase God is with us, the word Emmanuel. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive, the son and his name will be Emmanuel, which means God is with us." Do you sense His presence? Sometimes He feels far away, right? When things are not going your way, when you're suffering, when you're rejected, when you're betrayed, when you're deceived, when you're manipulated, when you're lied to, or when you're just being selfish and turn your back, your God can seem far away. That's an illusion. And at other times, it feels like he's right there, right? His hand on your shoulders, guiding you, directing you, whispering in your ear. Be careful of that. This is better. This is a happier path. This is a miserable path. Let's go out into the world today, more mindful of God's presence in our life. He's with us at all times, within us, beside us, around us. Let's be mindful of that. Because once we're mindful of it, we stop ignoring him. And then the conversation, the ordinary conversation of prayer throughout the day begins. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.