Daily Gospel Reflection

Catch Something Good

When was the last time you caught someone doing something right? Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we are exploring the genius of today's Gospel. The Gospel today is again from Mark's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. Again, Jesus entered the synagogue and a man was there who had a withered hand. And they watched him to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm, to save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Jesus talking about how to destroy Him. There's so much here in this gospel, looking for a word, phrase, idea. Which word, phrase, or idea struck you? Maybe it was destroyed. They wanted to destroy Jesus. Maybe it was restored. Jesus said to him, "Stretch out your hand." And his hand was restored.

What needs to be restored in your life? Maybe it was anger. Maybe you got some anger over something, and Jesus is angry today. And it's good for us to see. It's good for us to experience. Sometimes we have trouble accessing our emotions. Sometimes we think, "Oh, because I'm trying to grow spiritually, I can't be angry." And that isn't true. Maybe it's grieved. Maybe you're grieving something. Maybe it's hardness of heart. Maybe you feel your heart getting a little harder because of something that's happened to you. The phrase that jumped out at me was, they watched him. They watched him. He's coming into the synagogue and the Pharisees, they're watching him. Why? Because they think something wonderful might happen. No. They're watching him and it isn't for good reasons. They're watching him to see whether he will heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. They're watching him. You ever do that? Ever watched somebody? Watching them so you can judge them? You're watching them because you know they're going to do something wrong or you know they're going to do something that you can gossip about or you know they're going to do something that you disagree with. So you watch them, just like the Pharisees, the Sadducees that watching Jesus so they could accuse him so they could destroy him. That's what they wanted to do. Wanted to destroy him.

So the challenge today is to look on the positive side, is to catch someone doing something right. And especially those people who rub you the wrong way. If you've got enemies, and I think we all do, sometimes we sugarcoat that. To catch your enemies doing something right, to look for the good in other people, even when the not-so-good is easy to see, even when they make it easy for other people to judge them, to look for the good, to catch someone doing something right, and to point that out. That's your challenge for today. Go out there into the world, this wonderful but wounded world, and catch someone doing something right. And when you do, compliment that. Appreciate that. Make them aware that you caught them doing something right. God bless you. God bless your families. Have a great day. And remember, do not just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.