Today's Gospel

Did You Get the Message?

Each day we're looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea that jumps out of the Gospels for us. Today's reading is super abundantly rich with these options. The first thing is that Jesus is trying to get a message through to the disciples and they are slow to get the message and I think we are all like that at times. But it's good for us to pause sometimes and think, all right, what is God trying to make clear to me right now that I am pretending not to know, avoiding, resisting, running away from, whatever it is, what is God trying to make clear to me right now, to you right now, is is the thing that jumps out at me but there's so many things obviously Peter comes to Jesus and and Jesus says a hindrance to me what is a hindrance to you at this time in your life if we think about like really living the gospel in a radical way what is a hindrance to that in your life? And how are you going to deal with that hindrance? From there, Jesus goes into this almost a litany of lessons. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself. The gospel Christianity is in many ways a philosophy of self-denial. And that isn't something that we just happen upon. It isn't something that happens by mistake. It isn't something that happens by accident. It is something that only happens intentionally. And so to ask ourselves, okay, when did I intentionally deny myself? When's the last time I intentionally denied myself? And when's the last time I intentionally denied myself for the sake of the gospel?

Then there's this line, there's this famous line, right? For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Now when we think about this, we tend to think about it in worldly terms. I think about it on a micro level. More recently, I think traditionally we think about it on a macro level. When I say on a micro level, I think about it like on a daily basis, you know, on a daily basis. Am I trying to gain the world or am I putting the kingdom of God first? You know, elsewhere Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God.

Am I the kingdom of God? If somebody looked at my calendar, if somebody shadowed me for the day, would they say, oh, he's seeking first the kingdom of God? Or would they say, oh, he's trying to gain the world? Or is he trying to accomplish these things? And it's a constant struggle. It's a constant challenge for all of us to put the kingdom first. And this litany of lessons just goes on and on in today's reading. But what is the word to phrase the idea that jumped out at you? And how are you going to carry that into your day? How are you going to live that out today in the midst of the craziness of this world and very often our very, very busy lives? Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold. Be Catholic.