Daily Gospel Reflection

A Brutally Honest Faith Assessment

Do you feel fulfilled or do you feel unfulfilled? Do you yearn for fulfillment? Are you searching for fulfillment? It's one of the themes that comes up so often in the Gospels. I'm Matthew Kelly. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we're exploring the genius of today's gospel. Each day, looking for a word, a phrase, an idea, a virtue to inspire us, to focus us, to allow us to absorb the gospel into our lives. Not just as thoughts and ideas, but in our words, in our actions. Today's gospel is from the first chapter of Mark, verses 14 to 20. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea. For they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat mending their nets. And immediately he called to them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him.

So many rich ideas and images today's reading. Did you pick a word, pick a phrase, pick an idea? He was arrested. John was arrested. Maybe it was gospel. Maybe it was God. Maybe it was the time is fulfilled, or repent, or believe, or fishing. The guys were fishing, just something simple and normal. Or maybe it was immediately. We see that twice. They immediately responded to Jesus' call. Maybe it was brother. Maybe you heard the reading about these brothers and you started thinking about your brother. Or maybe it was father. Because the brothers leave their father. Maybe it made you think about your father. So much to draw from every single day's gospel. And that's why we take this few moments each day to look at today's gospel.

What I drew today was the time is fulfilled. So we spend so much of our lives waiting. We spend so much of our lives waiting for things to happen, excited for things to happen, or maybe fearful that something will happen. And we spend a lot of time waiting. And Jesus is all about fulfillment. And Jesus says today, He says, "The time is fulfilled." It's a beautiful idea. And it's an idea just dripping with faith. Because whatever is playing out in your life, the time is going to be fulfilled. It is going to play out. It's going to play out. God has a plan. God's plan will be fulfilled. Time will be fulfilled. We publish an amazing book at Dynamic Catholic called The Road to Hope. It's written by a bishop in Asia. I can't pronounce his name. I won't even try. But the book's called Road to Hope, The Road to Hope. And it's these short reflections that he wrote while he was in prison. There's about 1,000 of them, which is really short, a word, a few words, phrase, two sentences, and they're just-- they're brilliant. You realize, okay, this man is imprisoned, I think for about a decade, bishop. We never think of bishops being imprisoned. But for a thousand years, there's pretty much been no time in the past thousand years when a bishop of the Catholic Church has not been imprisoned somewhere because of their faith, not because they committed some crime, but because of their faith. And this man, modern times, just a few years ago, released and we published his book, Road to Hope. Absolutely brilliant, but has this faith that even though he's there in prison, something is being fulfilled in him and through him, that even though he can't tend to his flock, even though he can't be with his people, that his role as their shepherd is being fulfilled while he's sitting there in prison. And that takes an amazing faith, a powerful, dynamic faith. And that's our virtue today, the virtue of faith, supernatural virtue. Faith. How's your faith? Is it dynamic? Is it robust? Maybe it's fragile. Maybe your faith is a little fragile right now. Let's take an assessment of our faith today. Let's take a clear-eyed-- a brutally honest assessment of our faith.

Where is it at? Come to God and say, all right, God, my faith is robust today. It isn't always like this, but wow, it is strong today, God. And thank you for that. And be grateful and appreciative for that. Or to come to God and say, "Hey God, my faith is wavering because of this or because of that." Oh my God, my faith is fragile today. And can you support it? Can you help me grow my faith? Can you increase my faith? Give me the grace. My faith will be stronger tomorrow than it was today. It's being fulfilled. What's it? God's plan, God's will, God's dream. It's being fulfilled, whether we recognize it or not. It takes faith to recognize that. And that's our virtue today. Have a great day. Have a day of faith. May God bless you. God bless your families for generations to come with rich faith. Have a great day and remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself or that God created you to be.