Daily Gospel Reflection

Don't Live In Delusion

Hi. I'm Matthew Kelly. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant where we are exploring the genius of the gospel, the genius of Catholicism, and learning to listen to the voice of God in our lives through the daily gospel. Today's gospel continues straight from yesterday's gospel. We're encountering John the Baptist. And today, John the Baptist is encountering Jesus. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this, I came, baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel."

And John bore witness, "I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of God." So again, it's a scripture we're familiar with. It's a scripture we've heard many, many times. We're looking for a word, a phrase, an idea.

One thing I like to keep in mind is when a word appears more than once or even several times in a reading, I think that word is always worthy of consideration. And today, that word is sin. What is it? Well, sin, the root of the word means to miss the mark. And we all do, right? We miss the mark. Even when you think about the person you want to be, every day, you miss the mark in little ways and maybe big ways in the person you want to be. We think about the person God is calling you to be, every day, we miss the mark in small ways, medium ways, large ways. We miss the mark. And we live in a culture that doesn't want to talk about sin because we live in an arrogant culture. And what is absolutely necessary to hear the voice of God in our lives is humility.

And so the virtue of the day is humility. The word of the day is sin. Let's talk about how they connect. I heard a story recently about Navy SEALs. And a leader of the Navy SEALs was talking about when they have new prospective SEALs come in, what is the difference between the ones that succeed and the ones that fail. And he said, "One of the major differences is the ones that succeed, there is alignment between how they see themselves, how their peers see them, and how their leaders see them. There's alignment, close alignment between these three realities. The ones that don't fail very often have an opinion of themselves that isn't supported by their peer opinion of themselves and the leader's opinion of themselves."

And so when there isn't alignment, what do we discover? That people are living in illusions or delusions. They're living outside of reality, separated from reality. And when we refuse to look at sin, when we refuse to look at how we're missing the mark in our lives, we go into that space. We go into illusions. We go into delusions. We start to live separated from reality, outside of reality. And in that place, it is, firstly, impossible to be happy and, secondly, impossible to walk with God and to do the will of God. And so today, we're invited to have a look at how we are missing the mark in our lives. And to do that, it takes great humility. How do you see yourself? How does God see you? Is there close alignment between the two? Have a great day. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.