Today's Gospel

3 Steps to Following Jesus

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of the gospel. Now the Holy Spirit to guide us to a word or a phrase or an idea that can–can focus us in on living the gospel more fully today. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 9, verses 22 through 25.

And Jesus said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." And he said to them all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself?" What jumps out at you today? Jesus is over and over again. He's trying to prepare His-- His disciples, His followers. I'm going to suffer. I'm going to be rejected. And they're struggling to grasp that. And so he continues to repeat that over and over. And he says to them today, "If you would come after me, anyone who wants to come after me, let him deny himself." And this is a foreign concept, I think, in our culture where instant gratification seems to reign supreme, and-- and we're so interested in our comfort and-- and addicted to so many forms of comfort. But the ability to deny ourselves, the ability to delay gratification is so essential to the human experience if we're to live life to the fullest, as we yearn to and as God created us to. You can't be successful at anything unless you're willing and able to delay gratification. You can't be successful at anything, anything worthwhile, unless you're willing and able to delay gratification.

And that it's one of these universal principles that is impossible to escape, and yet we ignore it and avoid it all the time. I think about my own life. I cannot be successful as a parent unless I'm willing and able to delay gratification. I cannot be successful professionally in my ministry unless I'm willing and able to delay gratification. I can't be successful as a husband. I can't be successful in improving my health. I can't be successful in my personal finances. I can't be in any aspect of life unless we're willing and able to delay gratification. It's a muscle that is essential to living the gospel in a robust way. And it is a muscle that we need to develop, that we need to strengthen. And we strengthen that muscle by doing exactly what Jesus said today, by denying ourselves. And finding small ways to deny ourselves throughout the day so that we can be free, so that we can direct ourselves freely. And of course, that's at the core of love. Love is to give self. Must possess self before we give self. And so when Jesus says these things like if any man wants to follow after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, these-- these things that may seem like, okay, you got this phrase here, it's connected into this whole beautiful worldview that Jesus has. Because that right there, denying ourselves, is directly linked to our ability to love, to love deeply and purposefully. And that ultimately is our mandate, is to love God and neighbor. 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.