Today's Gospel

Hear the Word. Live the Word.

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we are exploring the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospels, and looking for tiny ways to apply the wisdom of the gospel to our life today. Remember, you're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea that jumps out at you. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 8:19-21. "Then his mother and his brethren came to him, but they could not reach Jesus for the crowd. And Jesus was told, 'Your mother and your brethren are standing outside, desiring to see you.' But he said to them, 'My mother and my brethren are those who hear the Word of God and do it.'"

Short reading, right? These short readings, sometimes you're amassed. These short readings, you get distracted right at the beginning, and then the gospel's over, and you're thinking, "Gee, I wonder what that was about." And that's why it's really important to focus in. One of the reasons I love reading the gospels for the Sunday Mass. Usually on Wednesday night, I just read the gospel for the following Sunday's Mass so that when it comes up, I can tune straight in because you've got all these people talking, moving, distracting, kids throwing their Cheetos and eating their crayons, and all this sort of stuff going on. And so it's important to focus in. Otherwise, we can miss it. And this one's four lines.

Jesus is with a crowd. His mother and his brethren show up. They can't get to him. People come to Jesus. "Your mum's outside." Jesus says, "My mother and my brethren are those who hear the Word of God and do it." Now, on one level, that can sound or feel a little bit of cold, right? And especially in the context of, okay, here we are. We got Mary, the mother of God, okay? And now, today, we understand the historic applications and proportions of who Mary was. And Jesus had all of that still right there in that moment. But he's like, "Eh, Jesus, your mom's here. My mom and my brethren are those who hear the Word of God and do it." Was he being disrespectful to Mary? No. Did she feel disrespected? Not a chance. Was she being disrespectful to her brethren? No. Did they feel disrespected? Maybe, right? I mean, they didn't have the virtue of Mary, so maybe they did feel disrespected. Maybe they were looking for backstage passes or special privileges or whatever else. But Jesus, his teaching is powerful, right? And we can get all caught up in that, which is like, it's like gossip. Or we can say, "Okay, what is the actual message here?" Hear the Word of God and live it out in your life. That is the actual message here.

We can get distracted by all sorts of things, but that's like gossip and social media, and this person talked you into about that other person said, and this other person said, and just distractions. What is the message? Hear the Word of God, do the Word of God. How are we doing at that? Right? I don't know about you, good days and bad days for me. Lots of days where I get distracted by things, and I'll be halfway through the day, and I'll be like, "Whoa, hold on a minute." My younger son, Simon, he calls it a reset. He needs a reset. And then when he needs a reset, he just sort of goes over and he takes a couple of minutes to himself. And it's amazing, right? It's like a reset. He like comes back. He's in like a different mood, in a different space, in a different way of relating and cooperating and all that sort of thing. And so let's think about that. If you're getting through your day and your day's getting away from you, maybe you need to reset. It doesn't take that long. It's amazing. You take a minute, two minutes, close the door, find a quiet place, close your eyes, get with God. It's amazing how a minute, two minutes can reset your day. Have an amazing day. And don't just be yourself. Be the very best-version-of-yourself or that God created you to be.