Today's Gospel

Accept Your Challenge

Wow, a lot there today. Did you get a word? Did you get a phrase? Did you get an idea? What did the Holy Spirit attach you to? Just got done a couple months ago writing The Forgotten Way. And so the line, "He who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in much." And got me thinking about a friend of mine, and she's dating a guy, and he's been dishonest in a couple of little things, and for some reason she came to my mind as soon as that came. Jesus says, "He who is dishonest in little things will also be dishonest in much."

And of course, a big theme here is in trust. Anytime a word is used over and over in a gospel, I always pay attention to that. If you're not good with the money or not faithful with the money, Jesus says, "No one's going to entrust you the true riches." If you're not faithful with another, if you're not faithful with another person's property, no one's going to entrust even what's your own. And then the two master thing, right? We do have divided hearts. And the journey of Christianity, the spiritual journey that the gospel invites us to, helps us have integrity by having a united heart, by putting things in order. When I used to travel, I used to say some people, they say they got bought at mass. And the reason I gave, the reason I used to give was, well, they would come to mass. Priests would stand up and read the gospel. And what the gospel does is it rearranges our priorities, okay? That is ultimately what the gospel does in a very practical way for us. It rearranges our priorities. So the priest or the deacon gets up to read the gospel. And what's really happening in our hearts, God is saying, "All right, yeah, that's not number one. That's actually number eight. And let's move this up here and this over here and this one is higher and this one is lower. And all right, good. You have a great week and I'll see you next week." Of course, we come back the next week. Priest or deacon reads the gospel. And what does God say in our hearts? He says, "Listen, I told you last week. That's not up there. That's number eight, okay? And then move this up here and this up here and this down here and this way down here. This one, just throw away, just a complete waste of life. Throw it away. Have a great week. I'll see you next week." And of course, what happens is if we don't accept the challenge to change and to grow, well, then yes, it's going to be boring. Why? Because God's going to give us the same lesson every week. Every week, He's going to say, "That isn't number one, that's number eight. I told you that three weeks in a row, and I told you this goes here and this goes here," because what the gospels are constantly trying to do is rearrange our priorities. Why? That's what love does. That is what love does. Fundamentally, it rearranges our priorities. You see that? Like young people, they fall in love, right? What happens? Stop hanging out with their friends, talking to the girl or the guy all the time. Texting, I guess, now.

And disinterested in things I used to spend a lot of time with that just focused on this other person. Why? Simple. Love rearranges our priorities. It's what the gospel seeks to do. It's what the gospel seeks to do. It's why we spend these minutes together each day so that our priorities in our heart and our mind can be realigned with the priorities of God. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.