Daily Gospel Reflection for December 4, 2018

Today's Gospel: Luke 10:21-24 Can you imagine what it must have been like to have actually beheld Christ with your own eyes? I sometimes like to put myself right there with the disciples, right there in their time with Jesus. Unfamiliar clothing, culture, and surroundings sometimes make this awkward and hard to do. It makes Jesus so other-worldly, not real. And I often give up the exercise. But because the Incarnation is so crucial to our faith, we must put ourselves back in time to experience Him in the flesh. We have to get beyond the trappings of time and get to the real Jesus -- a human being. The Gospel readings help us to do this. These are his actual words and actual events. Let them sink in. Go to these places in your mind with Jesus. Listen to Him speak these words. The disciples were “blessed” as Jesus says in the passage: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.” But we are blessed, too. Although our physical eyes do not behold him like the disciples’ did, we are “blessed” too because we also have a chance to see Him. Like I mentioned, we have minds and imaginations to use with the actual words of Jesus from the Gospels to help us “see” Him. We can take that journey in our minds with the Gospel readings and be right there! As Jesus says in this Gospel reading, “Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it...and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Ponder:

Do I "see" and "hear" Jesus in the Gospel readings as someone Who is human, real, and alive?

Pray:

Dear Jesus, You have come to us in the form of a man so that we can know the Father. Help us to "see" and "hear" You in our encounters with the Gospel readings.