Today's Gospel

Run Toward Challenge

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant where each day we read the Gospel, we look for a word, a phrase, or an idea that resonates with us that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our attention so that we can anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11:16-19.

"To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. 'We piped to you and you did not dance. We wailed and you did not mourn.' Well, John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is justified by her deeds."

What jumps out at you today? I think the idea that touches me is this concept that it's hard to reach people. People are doing their thing. It's hard to reach people. And people lack interest very often in truth, beauty, and goodness. And people, it's not just other people, it's ourselves. Sometimes we're not that interested in living the life that God calls us to live. There are some books on my bookshelf that if I'm in a certain space, I don't want to read that book. And I'll see it in my peripheral vision, or I'll be at the bookshelf getting another book off, and I'll think, "I really don't want to read that book right now because I'm in a space where I'm being a bit selfish or whatever. And I know that that book will laser-focus me back on what God is calling me to do." And I think we're all like that in different ways, some people remind us of what God is calling us to do. And so sometimes we avoid those people.

When I had that experience, the great challenge is to say, "Okay, I don't want to read that book right now, but that is the book I should read right now." And it doesn't mean I need to read the whole book, maybe read a chapter, maybe read a few pages, maybe look at some of the notes I wrote or some of the things I underlined last time I read it. But we need to run towards the people, the things, the experiences that challenge us, get in our face, and challenge us to realign our path with the path that God is calling us to walk. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.