Today's Gospel

Don’t Take Jesus Out of the Equation

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of the gospel and look for ways to apply it in our lives. Remember, we're looking for one word, one phrase, one idea that the Holy Spirit uses to stir up your heart and focus you in for the day. Today's gospel comes from Mark 8:14-21. "Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them saying, 'Take heed. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.' And they discussed it with one another saying, 'We have no bread.' And being aware of it, Jesus said to them, 'Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, you do not see. And having ears, you do not hear. And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?' And they said to him, '12.' 'And the seven for the 4,000. How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?' And they said to him, '7.' And he said to them, 'Do you not yet understand? Do you not yet understand?'"

So what's going on here today? Jesus is getting a little bit frustrated with the disciples. He's talking to them. He feels like they're not hearing, they're not listening to him, they're not remembering, and they get focused in on this little detail of "they've only got one loaf." And we do that all the time, right? That's worry. When we worry, we tend to focus on a very specific situation or problem or circumstance. We tend to drill into that situation, problem, circumstance, and we worry about it. And of course, you worry about enough things. What happens? Well, you develop a constant low-grade anxiety. You keep worrying about enough things that constant anxiety is going to rise and rise and rise. And that's what we see in our culture, right? Because we're worrying about stuff all the time-- become anxious. And what is Jesus saying? He's saying, "Hold on a minute. Okay, you've only got one loaf, but you got me too, okay? And I'm the maker of the loaf. You've seen that? How many times I got to show you? So don't be worried about your one little loaf. We're going to be all right here."

What are the disciples doing when they're worrying about, "Oh, we've only got one loaf?" They're taking Jesus out of the equation. They're taking Jesus out of the picture. And that's what we do when we worry. We think, "We got to solve it." And that is burdensome. That's heavy, right? Because if you've got to solve it and it's God's job and you try to do God's job, that's going to be overwhelming. That's going to create a heavy heart. That's going to create a lot of things. And so we ask ourselves today, how are we taking Jesus out of the equation? Whatever situation you're dealing with today. And we've all got one, right? Every day. And we deal with today's situation. Tomorrow, we have another situation. We've always got stuff we can worry about. But whatever your situation is today, ask yourself, how are you taking Jesus out of the equation? And how do you need to reintroduce Jesus to the equation so that it can make sense? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the daily gospel reflections. So one of the things I love doing-- 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–encourage you to do that today.