Today's Gospel

Your True Home

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome back. I love this opportunity to explore the gospels with you. Today, we have the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. And one of the things I love about Christianity, one of the things I love about our faith, one of the things I love about our God is that our God is a God of new beginnings, our God is a God of second chances. And so if you feel like you need a new beginning, if you feel like you need a second chance in some part of your life, in all of your life, I encourage you to focus on that today.

The beginning of the gospel of Luke. In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, it seemed good to me, also having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theopolis, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning Him went out through all the surrounding country. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and He went to the synagogue, as was His custom, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read, and there was given to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

So what is it that jumps out at you today? Is there a word? Is there a phrase? Is there an idea? One idea that jumps out of me today is the concept of hometown. Jesus is going home. He's going to where He was raised, where Mary and Joseph raised Him, where He played with other kids and watched Joseph working and observed Mary. And home has a strong, strong pull for us all. And even when it's good and even when it's bad, there's something about home that has a pull for us. And we can be pulled into the best parts of home and the best parts of our family life, and we can be pulled into the worst parts of home and the most dysfunctional parts of our family lives. And why? Because we have this yearning for home. Why? Because we're created for home. Only we don't realize that this isn't home. This looks like home, feels like home, smells like home, tastes like home, but isn't home. And home is the next life. Home is God. Heaven is God. Heaven is union with God. Home is God. And so, in all our yearnings for home, even when our yearnings are dysfunctional, we have to realize, okay, why is this yearning so strong? Because our yearning for home is a yearning for God. And we may place our yearning on the wrong things from time to time, but the yearning itself is good. And to realize, okay, our yearning for home is a yearning for God, and that's the idea that jumped out at me today. But when you think of home, where do you think of? Who do you think of? What do you think of? And what feelings do you have around that? Do you have good feelings about that? Do you have bad feelings about that? Positive, negative feelings about that? For most of it's a combination of all of that, and that's okay. And in what ways are you being called home right now? And what is home to God? What ways are you being called to connect with God in new ways or in old ways? In what ways are you being called to live in God? And how would that change the way you live in the world? And how would that change the way you relate with people? How would that change the way you treat people? How will that change the way you relate with yourself, the way you treat yourself, the way you think about yourself?

Because the reality is God changes everything. If you introduce God to anything, it changes that whole thing. God changes that whole thing. And without God, everything starts to fall apart. And so, when we feel that things are starting to fall apart, we have to ask ourselves, "Okay, where have we put God in all of this?" And very often, we've sort of shoved God off to the side, and the center can't hold. Your center as a human being cannot hold if you shove God off to the side. Society can't hold. That's what we're witnessing in society. The center can't hold if we shove God off to the side, or worse, pretend that He doesn't exist. The center can't hold. And so, when we start to feel the center slipping, could be in part of our life, could be in our whole life, could be in part of society, could be in all of society. What's happening is we've moved God out of his central place in our lives, in our world, in society. And that's what we're called to today. That's the invitation today. It's to rediscover home and our ultimate home is God. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.