Today's Gospel

Spiritual But Not Religious?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Jesus was a radical and He wants to have a radical impact on our lives. The gospel was relevant 2,000 years ago, it is just as relevant today, and that's why we take a few moments each day together. And I love doing this with you. Opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, listening for a word or phrase or an idea. Learning to listen to God speaking to us individually and collectively through His Word. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 9:14-15. The disciples of John came to Jesus saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then, they will fast." Short reading. You might have been just focusing in, just starting to get focused when it's finished, right? Sometimes that happens. What is it that jumps out at you? It's about fasting. Yesterday, Jesus was telling us if we want to follow Him, we have to deny ourselves. Talking about self-denial. Today, that theme is continued with fasting and the role that fasting plays in our lives, in our spirituality.

Our culture has essentially rejected religion, and it is not possible to live Catholicism in a robust way and not be religious. And the proof of this is that we see these things that Jesus does throughout His life that the church invites us to and challenges us to do that are of a religious nature. And fasting is one of them. Is it a spiritual nature? Yes. But it is also a religious tradition and it's of a religious nature. Jesus was religious. Sometimes people say, "Oh. I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious." Well okay, but Jesus was. He was religious. He was deeply religious. If you look at the religion of Judaism, He took it very, very seriously. He practiced the religion very, very seriously. But was He spiritual? Yes. More than any other person who has ever lived. And so we've got to be careful of this. The idea that, "Oh. I'm spiritual but not religious." Oh. Okay, but are you Christian? Are you trying to be Christian? Because if you're trying to be Christian and you're trying to be like Jesus, then those things don't go together. They're incongruent. And so we are called to be religious. And I think that is the message that we need to remind ourselves of in this age that is so anti-religion. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. It's 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, I encourage you to do that today.