Today's Gospel

Stay on Mission

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we read the gospel together, looking for a word or phrase or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to draw us in. Today's reading is from the Gospel of John 6:60-69. Many of Jesus' disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." What Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe and who it was that should betray Him. And Jesus said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this, many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. And Jesus said to the 12, "Will you also go away?" And Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? For you have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."

So again, today we're right towards the end of the sixth chapter of John's gospel. And again, it's a reading of enormous import. Jesus told the people throughout chapter six, "I am the bread of life, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you." And of course, the people are struggling with that. And in today's reading, we hear about that. The people are struggling with that. They say, "This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?" Which is fascinating to me because they didn't say, "This is a hard teaching. We can't believe it." They didn't say, "This is a hard teaching, we can't live it." It's a hard teaching. Who can listen to it? What are they essentially saying? "You're offending our ears. We can't even listen to this." And of course, in order to consider it, in order to believe it, you have to first listen to it. You have to listen to it in order to respond to it, in order to consider it, in order to live it, in order to believe it. And the people are essentially saying, "We can't even listen to this." What I find interesting is Jesus' response in all of these situations. He doesn't run after the people and try to pander to them. He doesn't run after the people and try to accommodate them. He doesn't run after them and say, "Well, don't worry about this one. Let's focus on the other one." No. He lets them do what they do, which is walk away. And we don't know. Did they come back later? We don't know. Did they reconsider? We don't know that.

But what we do know is that Jesus stayed on mission. He stayed on mission. He didn't chase after them and try and convince them and pander to them and accommodate them and all this sort of thing. He stayed on mission. That's what we have to do. That's what our parishes have to do. It's what our church has to do. Stay on mission. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

If you have children or grandchildren, I want to recommend this incredible book to you today, Child in Bloom by Renee Mattson. Megan and I have been reading it. It is astounding. It's a page, a page and a half each day. There are 81 reflections. I think that so much of parenting today is like these micro moments. It's not sitting the kids down and having this big conversation necessarily, but it's these micro coachings every day, these moments that present themselves and knowing how to handle them and how to elevate our kids through them. This is an incredible book. Child in Bloom: Practical Advice for Parenting Through the Growing Years by Renee Mattson. If you're a parent, if you're a grandparent, really want to encourage you to pick up a copy of this. It is a phenomenal book.