Daily Gospel Reflection

Strive for Authenticity

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant where we're exploring the genius of the gospels, the genius of Catholicism, and how to apply them to our daily lives through a simple exploration of each day's gospel, where we're looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea to speak into our lives, and a virtue to focus on for the day. Today's reading is from Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 21 through 28. "And they went into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching. For he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately, there was in their synagogues a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 'What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked him, saying, 'Be silent and come out of him.' And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, 'What is this? A new teaching? With authority, he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.' And at once, his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee."

The phrase that jumps out at me today is right here. Jesus goes to Capernaum. He goes to the synagogue. It's the Sabbath. He's teaching the people. And it says, "And they were astonished at His teaching for He taught them with one who had authority and not as the scribes." And what's interesting is the scribes had authority. They had worldly authority. They had position. They had power. They had that kind of authority. So what is it that was different about Jesus and the way he taught? I think it was authenticity. I think it was authority backed by authenticity, not just authority backed by some position or some appointed person who maybe is not trying to live the message that they're sharing with the world.

And so Jesus had this incredible authenticity. And it's out of that authenticity that people are attracted to him. It's out of that authenticity that people were attracted to the message. It's out of that authenticity that people tuned in, that they listened to him, that they took him seriously, that they followed him, that they laid down their lives for him. And that's an invitation for us here and now today to think about, "Okay, how authentically are we following Jesus, and how authentically are we being the person God created us to be? Is there authenticity? Do people see authenticity in us? Or do they see us pretending? Do they see us telling lies? Do they see us deceiving? Do they see us manipulating? Or do they see real authenticity in the way we're striving to live our lives, not to say we're always that, but do they see the striving?" It's that authenticity that our world today is desperately hungry for, just dying of thirst for that authenticity in a world where so much of it is pretending, so much of it is illusion or delusion.

The virtue of the day is surrender. In order to adopt this authenticity that God calls us to, we have to surrender the ego. We have to set the ego aside. We have to surrender to God and allow God to work through us. The ego is always an obstacle to God working through us. So today let's focus on the virtue of surrender, surrendering the ego so that God can work through us. Have a great day. God bless you. God bless your family. And remember, don't just be yourself, be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be