In 2016, I started FullTank, a seven-minute online video message that I upload daily on Facebook, and later on YouTube. The idea to make FullTank had been percolating in my brain for three long years. But I dillydallied, making excuses that I was too busy.

But one day, I chatted with a young man about his faith walk. He said, “I’m not a reader, Bo. But if there was a ten minute daily video reflecting on the Bible, I’ll watch it.” Right in front of me was my target audience, asking for what I had been thinking of doing. A week after, I launched my first FullTank episode. It was crude. Raw. With lots of mistakes. But I launched it. And I’ve been doing it ever since, touching the lives of thousands of viewers per episode.

Have you been dillydallying with a project that God has placed in your heart—something that will bless many?

Friend, God invites you to cross to the other side and work on it.

May you have the courage to launch His work to the world. Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

Reflect:

What is that one thing God wants you to do today that will bless others? Begin with that one step, and let God prosper what you started.

Father, help us to be brave in doing what You want us to do. Amen.

St. Junipero Serra, pray for us.

God’s judgment will be harsh on those who take advantage of the poor, who do not have the means to fight back. Amos is a prophet of social justice. Like him, every Christian should be an instrument of social justice. Without change in our lives, the Gospel is not being lived.

⁶ Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word; because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. ⁷ They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth, and force the lowly out of the way. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name. ⁸ Upon garments taken in pledge they recline beside any altar; and the wine of those who have been fined they drink in the house of their god. ⁹ Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, who were as tall as the cedars, and as strong as the oak trees. I destroyed their fruit above, and their roots beneath. ¹⁰ It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and who led you through the desert for forty years, to occupy the land of the Amorites. ¹³ Beware, I will crush you into the ground as a wagon crushes when laden with sheaves. ¹⁴ Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong man shall not retain his strength; the warrior shall not save his life, ¹⁵ nor the bowman stand his ground; the swift of foot shall not escape, nor the horseman save his life. ¹⁶ And the most stouthearted of warriors shall flee naked on that day, says the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 50:16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22-23

R: Remember this, you who never think of God.

¹⁶ “Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, ¹⁷ though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?” (R) ¹⁸ “When you see a thief, you keep pace with him, and with adulterers you throw in your lot. ¹⁹ To your mouth you give free rein for evil, you harness your tongue to deceit.” (R) ²⁰ “You sit speaking against your brother; against your mother’s son you spread rumors. ²¹ When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it? Or do you think that I am like yourself? I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.” (R) ²² “Consider this, you who forget God, lest I rend you and there be no one to rescue you. ²³ He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me; and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” (R)

Gospel | Matthew 8:18-22

It is easy to say that we want to follow Jesus but to do it is difficult. If we want to be a disciple, we need to discover the best way to follow Him. Each of us is responsible for discovering God’s will for our own lives. We cannot just wait for others to tell us what to do.

Gospel Acclamation

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

¹⁸ When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. ¹⁹ A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” ²¹ Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”

Read the Bible in one year! Read JOB 18 - 21 today.

There are times when something captures our imagination and we become immediately enthusiastic about the prospects of the endeavor. In our eagerness, we make rash statements without thinking of the consequences of the commitment. “I will go wherever you go!” Has the man really thought about what this commitment might mean? 

Jesus is on His way to death on a cross—a painful and shameful way to die. How many of us would willingly embrace such a path in life? I doubt many will raise their hands to volunteer. It wasn’t difficult to discern what the consequences of following Jesus were. Yes, many people held Jesus in great esteem, but not many of them were the influential leaders of the day. As a populist figure who was not concerned about whom He upsets, Jesus was on a slippery and uncertain path.

Even today, the path of a true disciple of Jesus can be as difficult as it was a century ago. With the liberal social agenda gaining more traction every day, the accepted mores of society are changing rapidly—and in the wrong direction— away from Gospel values. We are living in a time of cultural disharmony and the majority of the people in the western world seem to be willing guinea pigs, so to speak, for the ever varying social partnerships and values.

Christians have to make a decision as to whom to trust when it comes to moral values. Will we trust the Gospel or the world? As for me, I commit myself to the Gospel. And if that means eventual conflict with liberal moral values, then so be it! Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL

Reflection Questions:

Where do you derive your moral values? Whom do you trust? 

Jesus, help me to understand the moral values of the Gospel and make me commit to them each day of my life. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ________________________________________