Today's Gospel

The Key to All Success

Welcome back to "Radical and Relevant," where we are exploring the genius of Jesus in the Gospels and looking for a word or a phrase or an idea each day to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 verses 24 through 28. Then Jesus told His disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man gain in return for his life? For the Son of Man is to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay every man for what He has done. Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

What jumps out at you today? It's a story about the cross. It's a story about self-denial. Jesus has this way of adding just a couple of words to sentences that changes like the whole meaning of the sentence. He says here, "Forever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." It's not enough just to lose your life, you know? It has to be for his sake. It has to be for the sake of the kingdom. It has to be for the sake of God. It's easy to lose your life in lots of selfish ways. And of course, it's a teaching about self-denial. We live in a culture that is addicted to comfort. We live in a culture that says, do whatever you want, wherever you want, however you want with whoever you want. We live in a culture that looks down on self-denial, but the reality is, in the long run, you cannot be successful at anything unless you are willing to deny yourself. You cannot be successful at any worthy career unless you're willing to deny yourself and make sacrifices. You cannot be successful in your personal finances, in your health and well-being, in parenting, in marriage. You cannot be successful at anything worth being successful at without self-denial.

And so today is an invitation to assess, all right, what is my ability to deny myself? What is my ability to do what I don't feel like doing? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.