Today's Gospel

The Key to a Troubled Heart

Welcome to your daily reflection of the gospel, where we're exploring the radical and relevant nature of Jesus' life, his teachings, the genius of the gospel, the genius of Catholicism, and each day looking for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our day in the gospel so that we can live out the gospel in our own way, in our own place, in our own time. Today's reading comes from John 14:1-6. "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house, there're many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. And where I am, you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" And Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. Henceforth, you know him and have seen him."

What word or phrase or idea jumps out at you today? Couple jump out at me. The first one is the opening line. "Let not your hearts be troubled." We let our hearts be troubled so much and so often and so easily. What is your heart troubled with today? And how is Jesus inviting you to lay that trouble down, to lay it on the altar, to lay it at his feet, and to say, "All right, God, I need you to take care of this." "Let not your hearts be troubled." You're going to go out in the world today. There's going to be a lot of problems out there in the world. And there'll be a lot of suffering, a lot of problems, a lot of mess. And it's easy for our hearts to get troubled. But there's a clear command here. "Let not your hearts be troubled," and wait for it, "Believe in God." You can't have one without the other, right? If you don't believe in God, you best let your heart be troubled. And you best let your heart be seriously troubled. Because if you don't believe in God, then I don't know how people even go out in the world on any given day. I don't know how people get by. I don't know how people survive. And so these two things go together.

The other thing that struck me, it strikes me every time now. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He didn't say, "I am a truth." He didn't say, "I'm one of several truths." "I'm one of a few options." He didn't say, "Well, I got my truth, and you've got your truth, and you live in your truth, and I'll live in my truth." And, no, it was none of this relativistic nonsense. He was clear, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life," not a way, not a truth, not a life, the. He's powerful. His clarity is powerful. Especially in a world that's so chaotic and so confusing, the clarity of the gospel is liberating. Have an amazing day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.