Daily Gospel Reflection

The Spirit Will Provide

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the gospel of the day, looking for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our day in the Gospel that day. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, verses 17 through 22. "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and flog you in their synagogues. And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say. For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of the Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father, his child, and the children will raise up against their parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved." What jumps out at you today?

The idea that the Spirit will provide the things to say is something that is very real for me, is very near and dear to my heart because I've been in that situation so often where you go somewhere to speak and maybe you've done a lot of preparation and maybe you think you know what you're going to say and then something happens and for whatever reason what you thought you were going to say just isn't going to work. It isn't going to land with the audience. It isn't going to resonate with the audience. You need to say something else.

I have very distinct memories of September 11th because I was on a plane and I flew out of New York that morning and landed in Cincinnati and I went home and I was working on a book, I think. So I just had my phone off and I didn't know anything had happened. I thought when I got to the airport in Cincinnati, it was sort of like weird. It wasn't really anyone around, but nobody had said what had happened. Nobody was talking about what had happened. And so I drove home and then there was a knock on my front door.

And one of the guys who was working with me, he's like, "You need to turn on the television. I've called you like 47 times." And of course I did. And then I realized with the rest of the world what had happened. But that night, I was scheduled to speak here in Cincinnati. So I went into the office and the team is like, "Well, we should cancel, right?" And I'm like, "No. Absolutely not. We're not gonna cancel. This is a time when people need to come together. They need to come together and pray.

They need a message." And one of the women on my staff said, "But what will the message be?" And I'm like, "I have no idea what the message will be." But fortunately, it's only like 2:00 o'clock and we're not on till 7:00 o'clock, so we got some time to work that out. But I've been in situations in my life where I really did not know what I was going to say, but the Spirit did deliver, and the Spirit does deliver. And it's good for us to have those experiences and to learn to trust in His providence. In what way is God calling you, challenging you, encouraging you to trust in His providence today?

Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, be Catholic.