Daily Gospel Reflection

Take the First Opportunity

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we're exploring the genius of the gospel. Remember, each day, we're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea to anchor our day and to allow the gospel to sink its roots deep into our lives, into our words, our actions, our thoughts. Today's gospel is from Luke 16:19-31. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame." But Abraham said, "Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between you and us, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would like to pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us." And he said, "Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send him to my father's house - for I have five brothers - so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment." But Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them." And he said, "No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." He said to them, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

It's a powerful reading. It reminds me of-- the idea that jumps out at me today is first opportunities. When I first started traveling, I had a great spiritual director, a wonderful priest, and he sat me down, and he said to me, "Take the first opportunity you get to pray each day." He said, "You're going to be traveling." He was looking at my itinerary: 6:00 AM flights and this sort of thing. He said, "Take your first opportunity to pray each day. You get on that plane, block everything out, and do your prayer." And it was such valuable, valuable insight because we tend to put our prayer off. And even if we've established the time each day to do our prayer, we do tend to put it off at times, and when we do that, we learn the same thing almost always, and that is we kick it down the day, kick it down the road. It's later in the day, later in the day, later in the day. There's never a convenient time to do it. And so we end up doing it at the end of the day, exhausted, or saying, "Eh, can't be bothered today. I'll get back to it tomorrow."

And so I think that's what jumps out at me today, is that Lazarus is at the gate, you've got the rich man, and we're all the rich man; let's be clear. When you look at the world's population and what we have living in America, even the poorest among us is rich materially compared to the rest of the world. It's astounding how blessed we are. And so you've got the rich man, and you've got Lazarus at the gate, and the rich man is begging Abraham to send Abraham to him and then to send Abraham to his brothers. And I wondered: did the rich man think, "Oh, yeah, Lazarus is there. I'll give him some food tomorrow," or "Lazarus is there. I'll give him some clothes tomorrow," or "Lazarus is there. I'll ask him, 'Lazarus, what happened? How did you end up here? What's your story?' tomorrow"? Or did he just never think about it, or, worse than that, did he think, "Lazarus is there, man. That guy's a nuisance. We've got to get rid of him off my doorstep." First opportunities. For all the good things you're called to do today, take the first opportunity to do them. God bless you. Have an amazing day. Remember, be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.