Today's Gospel

Will You Heed the Warning?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we listen to the Gospel, we look for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our day in the Gospel. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 10:16-23. Behold, I send you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 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 your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver up brother to death and father his child and 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. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.

But truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man returns. What jumps out at you today? I had to smile to myself in the midst of here where it says, "Children will raise up against their parents", because I have teenagers now, which seems impossible to believe, but Walter is 14 and Isabel is about to turn 13 here in a couple of weeks. And I see them already raising up against their parents so that made me smile.

But Jesus is warning the disciples of what they encounter, which is a beautiful sign of profound leadership because great leaders warn their people of things ahead that they are able to see as leaders, but their people are not able to see because they may have not been through enough experiences or enough education to be able to see those things. And so a good leader will say, "Hey, you got this tough thing coming down the road. You might see it, but I see it. And when that tough thing arrives, I have confidence that you can handle it, but I'm also here to support you as a leader."

And maybe we have resources that can help you through that difficult time so that the person doesn't get surprised by whatever that tough thing is coming that the leader is already aware of. And so there's a beautiful care in Jesus' leadership here. He's saying to his disciples, "Okay, you're going out. I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, and people are going to be mean to you. Just to put it very mildly. And it's okay. You're going to be all right. You're going to get through this." And so he's giving them that confidence at the same time that they're going to get through this.

So whatever difficulty you are in at this time in your life, I encourage you to take a look at this reading and ask yourself, how is Jesus encouraging you through whatever tough thing you're dealing with right now? Have a great day and remember, be bold, be Catholic.