Daily Gospel Reflection

The Mark of a Good Friend

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant. Today's story is one we've heard a hundred times and so we need to focus in especially. And remember, not looking necessarily to take in the whole reading of the whole story. You're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea that God uses to speak to you today to anchor your life and to allow the gospel to take root in your day today.

Today's reading is from Luke 15:1-3 and 11-32. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So Jesus told them this parable. There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me my share of property that falls to me." And the father divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took his journey into a far country. And there, he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in the country and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed the swine, and he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself and said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare, but I perish here with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants,'" and he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and make merry for this son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found," and they began to make merry. Now his eldest son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to them, "Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound." But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, "Lo, these many years I have served you and I've never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me even a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf." And the father said to him, "Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. It is fitting to make merry and be glad for this brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found."

What jumps out at you? What jumps out at me today is that it relates to like something my dad told me when I was a teenager, he said like, "True friends are happy for you when good things happen for you." And I think throughout my life, I think it's difficult to find those people. I think there's a lot of people when good things happen for you, they don't think about you and rejoicing for you, they think about themselves, and whatever it is that happens inside of them as a result of that prevents them from being happy for you. The second brother here was not capable of being happy for his brother who had come from dire circumstances, even though it was of his own doing, and not capable of being happy for his father who was heartbroken that his son had left and abandoned him and the family, but also was not capable of being happy for himself that his brother, his only brother, had returned home. And so I think the question we ask ourselves today is, when good things happen for other people, do we focus on them and be happy for them or do we focus on ourselves and get lost in all sorts of head trash that goes along with that? God bless you. Have an amazing day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be