Today's Gospel
Your Place in Heaven
2 min
God hasn’t stopped speaking. We’ve Stopped Listening.
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Gospel
Mt 5:17-19
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Your Place in Heaven
Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we take a few minutes to reflect on the gospel, looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our imagination so that we can live the gospel more fully today than we did yesterday. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew, 5:17-19. "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not one dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
What jumps out at you today? Was there a word or a phrase or an idea? A couple things jumped out at me. Jesus talks about least in the kingdom of heaven and great in the kingdom of heaven. And so that's an interesting concept, right, because he speaks about this over and over. It isn't just one-off, and that means there is different experiences of the kingdom of heaven. The second thing that jumped out at me is the word relaxes. Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and I think we're relaxing the commandments for ourselves all the time.
I know I am. My whole life, I look back, I see, "Oh, yeah, I relaxed that one a little bit there, and I relaxed that one a lot there and I relaxed that one," and I think we do make exceptions for ourselves. We do pretend sometimes that we're the exception to the law, or in this case, the commandment. Example is speeding, right? Speed limit is 55, 65, whatever it is. Do we go faster? Yes. Why? Well, we're relaxing the law. We're making ourselves the exception. And Jesus is saying, "This is not the path to the kingdom of heaven."
And so which of the commandments are you relaxing for yourself at this time in your life? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
