Today's Gospel

The Truth About Your Expectations

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where, each day, we explore the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 17 through 19. Remember, each day, we're listening for a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our attention.

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So what is it that jumps out at you? Jesus has come, some people recognized him, some people didn't. Those that recognized him, they all had expectations of him. And just as you have expectations of everybody you encounter, everybody you encounter has expectations of you. And sometimes we live up to them, and very often, we don't. Sometimes only because we don't know what the expectations are. In the case of Jesus, people had these expectations around the Messiah-- and they were not just individual expectations, they were multi-generational expectations-- and not just multi-generational expectations, but expectations that had been building for thousands of years. So the Messiah shows up; those that recognized him had massive expectations of Jesus. And I think some of them must have had the expectation that Jesus was going to throw out the old stuff and bring in everything new. And what is he saying here today? He's saying, "No." He's not come to abolish the law and the prophets. And so this would have created confusion among people who had the expectation that he was going to throw the old stuff out.

We, of course, live in a disposable culture. We throw so much away. Something stops working, do we fix it? In most cases, we don't. We throw it away and get a new one, or we send it back and get a new one. And this disposable attitude has implications far beyond our consumption of material goods. It affects our relationships. Lots of people, right? Relationship gets broken, do they fix it? No, they throw it away. This mentality, it seeps into every aspect of our lives. And of course, Jesus is talking about this here. The tendency for us is to have expectations that this should be thrown away, or that should be thrown away, or this is too old-fashioned, or that is too old-fashioned, or this isn't relevant anymore, or that isn't relevant anymore. And most of the time, what Jesus is saying is, it isn't that these things aren't relevant anymore, it is that our lives have become irrelevant to these things, and these things are the most relevant things. So if our lives are irrelevant to the most relevant things, we need to step back, we need to take another look, we need to make adjustments. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I was at dinner many years ago, was about to speak in a parish, and there were a bunch of people at the dinner, and I heard, out of sort of just peripheral, a priest say at the head of the table, "You can become a saint just by governing your speech." And it was just so convincing, it was so compelling. I have wanted to write this book for at least 20 years. And it's The Forgotten Way: The St. James Master Plan. The Forgotten Way: The St. James Master Plan. If you haven't got a copy, encourage you to pick a copy up. I think it's probably–it might be the most challenging thing I've ever written. The promise of this book is very simple: you can transform your life by changing the way you speak. The Forgotten Way: The St. James Master Plan. Hope you pick up a copy today. God bless you and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.