Today's Gospel

The Tension We All Face

I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're exploring the genius of the gospel and looking for one word, phrase, or an idea to anchor our day in the Gospel. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew 17:22-27. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the half shekel tax went up to Peter and said, "Does your teacher pay the tax?" He said, "Yes." And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings on the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?" And when he said from others, Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

What jumps out at you today? Is there a word or a phrase or an idea that captured your attention that the Spirit drew you towards? For me, it's this idea that there is this tension between the spiritual and the worldly. And we live each day in that tension. And we live each day trying to honor our values, walk with God, grow spiritually, and yet to do that in the midst of a world that is constantly making demands of us, many of them unreasonable, casting expectations upon us, many of them unreasonable, many of them that don't help us become the best version of ourselves, many of them that don't help us walk with God. And that is the road we need to navigate. To live in the world, but to be of God, to be sent by God into this world, to be a light, to be salt, to be witness.

Have a great day, and remember, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.