Today's Gospel

Embrace it All

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we are exploring the genius of the Gospel. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 9, Verses 22 through 25, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised, and he said to all: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"

The word that jumps out at me today is two words, suffer and deny. We're allergic to suffering in our culture. We try to avoid any type of suffering that we can and numb ourselves to suffering, and take pills even if we have just a little bit of pain, and the reality is that suffering is a natural part of life. There is unavoidable suffering that is a natural part of life, and how we approach that suffering says an enormous amount about what we actually believe in the Gospel because Jesus presents suffering as a path to salvation, as a path to personal development, as a path, and our culture doesn't see suffering as a path at all. Our culture sees suffering as a path to be completely avoided.

So how are you suffering in your life today? What unavoidable suffering is in your life today, and are you trying to avoid it, or are you embracing it, offering it up to God, and saying, "All right, God. I got to go through this. I have to suffer in this way, but I offer it up to you for my friend who is sick, or for my family, or the church, or my kid's school"?

Let's not waste the unavoidable suffering in our lives. Let it transform us and transform our world. God bless you. Have a great day. Go and just be yourself, be the very best version of yourself today, all that God created you to be, and remember, be bold, be Catholic