Daily Gospel Reflection

The Prophets in Your Life

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's Gospel is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 17, verses 9 through 13. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one of the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." And the disciples asked him, "Then why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" And he replied, "Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was speaking about John the Baptist.

What jumps out at you today? Is there a word, a phrase, or an idea?

What jumps out at me is this idea of how we've treated the prophets, how humanity has treated the prophets throughout history. And we don't have a very good track record there. In fact, we have a horrible track record there. And what does that mean to us here and now in this day and age? The reality is, is that there are always prophets. Every age has prophets. And the truth is, there are prophets in your life. You may be aware of them. You may not be aware of them. They may be a prophet in just one aspect of your life.

What is a prophet? A prophet is someone who announces the will of God, someone who announces God's way and directs people towards God's way. My children, they love playing sport, and we talk about how important coaching is, not only in sport, but in life, how important it is to be coachable, and the idea that champions love coaching. And one of the things that I'll say to them is like a champion will accept coaching from pretty much his worst enemy. Why? Because the champion is so committed to excellence, so committed to winning, that if he can learn something from his worst enemy that will get him one-tenth of a second faster in a race or six extra inches or nine extra inches in a football play or whatever, the champion will listen to that person who maybe he despises or is despised by, or they have this enmity or this something between them. Very often, we dismiss messages based on who is delivering them.

And that is a mistake that has been made with the prophets throughout history, is that people looked at the prophets and said, "No, it doesn't fit the mold." People looked at the prophets and said, "No, he doesn't do this," or, "He does do that," or, "She doesn't do this," or, "She does do that." So because of that, he or she can't be a prophet from God. The question I have for you today is, who are the prophets in your life right now? Who are the prophets in your life right now? Who's speaking into your life and challenging you to walk the way of God? Or it might just be one situation where someone you don't like at work or at home or whatever is telling you, "You should approach this situation in this way," and there's wisdom in what they're saying, but you don't like who it's coming from. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about where the message is coming from. Worry about is the message good, true, wise? Is it going to help you walk with God? Is it going to help you become the best version of yourself? Is it going to help you help others do the same? Because if the message is that, it doesn't matter who it's coming from. Grasp that message, live that message. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.