Daily Gospel Reflection for August 22, 2023

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

This Gospel leads off with the warning to those who are rich and their arrival in heaven. It is full of phrases we know by heart. We have the camel and the needle’s eye, the familiar “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible,” and “But many who are first shall be last, and the last will be first.” Surely, we have thought of each of these sayings at one or more times in our lives.

However, having this reading on today, the Queenship of Mary, can shine new light on their meaning. An angel visiting a young maiden at home seems as ridiculous to imagine as seeing a camel make its way through a needle’s eye. A child born of a virgin? Impossible! But it is in the last verse we see God’s perfect plan come together - the last shall be first.

Sadly, we can twist this verse around and focus on that word "last." We can often feel as if we are last on God’s list. I know I fall victim to this faulty thinking on a regular (weekly? daily?) basis. With all the big problems in the world, why would God bother with mine?

With this bothersome attitude, I am refusing to trust in those verses I know by heart.

With God all things are possible! And those who have followed Him in this new age will see Him on His throne, and no matter what we have given up, we will be repaid one hundred times more. I am never last in God’s eyes. After all, I have the Lord’s own mother as my queen.

Ponder:

Do I place myself last in God’s thoughts? Am I guilty of forgetting how He is the God of the impossible?

Pray:

Dear Jesus, today may I turn to my Queen Mary for inspiration and remember that Your plan makes perfect sense as long as I strive to follow You.

Click to tweet:
We can often feel as if we are last on God’s list. I know I fall victim to this faulty thinking on a regular basis. With all the big problems in the world, why would God bother with mine? #DailyGospel

Daily Gospel 2