Daily Gospel Reflection

What Real Faith Looks Like

Happy Easter. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant on this Easter Sunday. Today's reading is from John, Gospel of John 20:1-10. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So, she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, and the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." Peter then came out with the other disciples, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloth lying and the napkin, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloth, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in. And he saw and believed, for as yet, they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead, then the disciples went back to their homes. As an interesting thing in today's reading, it's not the main thing I want to talk to you about, but it's an interesting thing. The women arrive at the tomb, they work out, okay, where's Jesus? They go running after the disciples. The disciples come running towards the tomb. John arrives at the tomb first, but he doesn't go in. Who's he waiting for? He waits for Peter, okay? And Peter arrives, Peter goes in.

And so we see here in the earliest times of the church, I mean, literally the very earliest times, we see this disrespect for Peter as the leader, for Peter as the Pope, for Peter as the one who is going to lead them when Jesus ascends into heaven. And it's so subtle, right? It'd be so easy to read through it. And it'd be so easy for John to get to the tomb and say, "I'm going in. Old Peter, he's back there somewhere. He'll be here in five minutes. I'm not waiting for him to show up." But know that there's real, there's something real there. There's something for us to learn there. But what strikes me today, it probably is not going to be what strikes anybody else. But the women go back and find the disciples. And what do they say? "They have taken the Lord." I do this a lot. Head trash. I assume the worst. I assume the worst. Part of the reason is because when you're a leader, you have to hope for the best, but you have to plan for the worst outcome. You have to be ready. If the worst outcome comes, you have to be able to be ready for that. You have to be calm in the midst of the storm. If you lose your calm, the people you're leading will freak out. If they see that you're calm, the calmness will be contagious. But there's a lot of things in my life when it's not a matter of leadership. And I do, my mind does, it goes to the worst thing. And that's what they've done here they've assumed the worst. What do they say? They say they have taken the Lord. And that would have been horrible, right? I mean, that would have been a disastrous thing if someone had actually stolen the body of Jesus. But we jump to conclusions. We assume the worst.

What's happening in your life right now where you're jumping to conclusions? Rather than waiting for the facts, jump into conclusions. What's happening in your life right now where you're assuming the worst outcome, when there may be no facts to suggest that that is going to actually be the outcome. And our desire to jump to these conclusions to assume things is because our mind prefers false certainty to uncertainty. Our minds prefer false certainty to uncertainty. And of course, faith is the ultimate position of uncertainty. And so the invitation of God is to get comfortable with uncertainty because our faith is living in that place of uncertainty. And if we're trying to say, we know this for certain. We know this for sure. No, that's our mind will prefer false certainty, and that's dangerous. It's so dangerous.

Let's get comfortable with the uncertainty today. Let's get comfortable with the mystery. One of the things I love about Catholicism, we got mystery, and we got history. Have a wonderful Easter. God bless you. God bless your families. On behalf of everyone here at Dynamic Catholic, we wish you an amazing Easter. We thank you for all the ways you bless us and all the ways you allow us to bless you. We look forward to serving you powerfully every single day for the rest of your life.