Today's Gospel

Don’t Resist Your Call

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we take a few moments. I love having this time with you just to reflect on the gospel. What does it mean to be radical and relevant? Well, it means that the gospel is, Jesus is, the church is very different to what most people assume. Most people in our culture believe that Jesus, the gospel, the church are boring, anything but dynamic, anything but radical. And our culture largely believes that Jesus, the gospel, and the church are irrelevant. And as we do each day, we discover that the gospel is as relevant today as ever before. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 8:18-22. Now, when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up to Jesus and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of God has nowhere to lay his head." Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me and leave the dead to bury the dead." What is it that jumps out at you today? Sometimes when we read the gospel, it's easy to focus in on something maybe we don't understand. So maybe today, one of the things Jesus says is, you've got a scribe come to Jesus. He says, "Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go." And Jesus says to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." You might sit there and think, "Okay, but what is Jesus saying? How is that an answer to what the scribe was saying? And what does that mean? And the reality is, for our exercise, if you don't understand it, it doesn't matter. We just move on. Because all we're looking for each day is to listen to the voice of God, allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to one word, one phrase, or one idea that the Spirit uses to capture our imagination, to draw attention to. The thing that struck me today is that the second piece of this story, another disciple said to Jesus, "Lord, let me first bury my father." And Jesus says to him, "Follow me and leave the dead to bury the dead." I know how that feels or resonates with you where you sit, but that feels sort of harsh, right? Let me go and bury my father. I'm going to come and follow you, Lord, but let me go and bury my father. And Jesus says, "No, let the dead bury the dead." It's powerful. What was Jesus saying? Was he being rude? Was he being any of the other things you might come up with? Or is there a lesson here that has nothing to do with this actual situation? And I think what the lesson is is that when we're called, we all resist. And in that moment of resistance, we are tempted to procrastinate or come up with excuses. And maybe that was what Jesus was saying to the first guy. "Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go." Jesus says, "Yeah, but foxes have holes and birds of the year have nests and the son of man has nowhere to lay his hands." Maybe you're saying, "Okay, but you got a lot of excuses in your head. I can see them muddling around in there." And then the second one is, "Oh, let me go and do this." Maybe it isn't about the dead at all. Maybe it isn't about bearing his father. Maybe it's about when the Lord calls, don't delay. When the Lord calls, don't procrastinate. When the Lord calls, don't question. When the Lord calls, don't doubt. When the Lord calls, respond generously, immediately.

And of course, we see that in the calling of the 12. We see how quickly Peter and James just put down their nets and followed Jesus. We see how Matthew got up from the tax collector's table and just followed Jesus. These were radical, generous, abundant responses to Jesus' call. He's going to call us to something today. Might be something small, might be something large. Whatever it is, when he calls, let's respond immediately and generously. Have a great day and Be Bold and Be Catholic.