Daily Gospel Reflection for November 23, 2018

Today's Gospel: Luke 19:45-48 We've heard Christ's words in this gospel so many times, and all the different ways they can be applied. But take a moment and look at the second half of this passage: "The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words." I find a certain similarity in the modern world. In so many places, the church suffers outright persecution: the Middle East, China, etc. And in most of the rest of the world, the church experiences white martyrdom, an ongoing prejudice, culturally-accepted antagonism, and a wholesale dismissal of Christian values and Catholic belief. In many ways, the leaders of the people are still seeking to put Christ to death. After all, He disrupts their comfort. But when Christ was alive, they couldn't kill Him (until He permitted them) because "all the people were hanging on his words." What if the same was true today? What if we who profess faith in Him hung so faithfully on His words that our secular culture didn't stand a chance? What would that look like in your life?

Ponder:

Do you allow Christ's words to enter into your life and change it in a way that's obvious to the rest of the world?

Pray:

Father, You sent Your Son into the world to die at the appointed time to save me. Help me to encounter Him and hang on His words so faithfully that the world's influence can never kill my love for Him.