Today's Gospel

You Argue Like a Pharisee

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant where each day we explore the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospels, the genius of Christianity, the genius of Catholicism, and look for ways to apply it to our own lives here and now today. The reading today is from the Gospel of Mark 8:11-13. The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation." And he left them. Getting into the boat again, he departed to the other side. So again, we hear these readings, we read through lines. And one of the challenges is for us to read every word, to read every line, to reflect on every word, every line. And so the first line of the reading, it's a short reading, but the first line of the reading-- half line of the reading is the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus. So just imagine that for a minute, right? You're in the synagogue or outside the synagogue or walking through town or in the marketplace, and Jesus is there, and the Pharisees show up, and they start to argue with Jesus, okay? How would you feel? If you're sitting here and Jesus is standing 10 feet over there, and the Pharisees come, and they're ganging up on him, and they're bullying him, and they're arguing with Jesus, how would you be feeling? You'd be unsettled, right? And so when we start to really read the gospel, we'll start to have those feelings because we'll start to imagine ourselves there. We'll start to see it happening. We'll start to be in the scene. The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus. You'd be wanted to step in, right? You'd be wanting to say something to Pharisees. You want to back the Pharisees off. And, of course, another way to look at it is we are the Pharisees. And we're arguing Jesus.

I've had some arguments with Jesus over the years. I don't know about you, but I've had some pretty good arguments with Jesus over the years. I remember when my grandma died, I had some pretty good arguments with Jesus over that. I'm with the Pharisees. When I'm arguing with Jesus, I'm the Pharisees, I'm the scribes. When I'm not, I'm sitting there and I'm really uncomfortable the way they're treating Jesus and I have feelings about that. And so when you're reading the scriptures, we gotta draw it in. We can't just let it be over there. I saw this show recently and some psychotherapist told the patient, "You've got to learn to feel your feelings." Well, we've got to learn to feel our feelings when we're reading the scriptures, learn to feel our feelings because God is going to speak to us through those feelings as well. Because when someone is picking on Jesus, we should have feelings about that. Have a great day. And remember, do not just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.

I hope you're enjoying the daily gospel reflections. So one of the things I love doing is spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.