Friday September 26, 2025 - Good News Ministries

Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica

We evangelize through our responses to everything that happens to us during the day.

Good News Reflection for:

Friday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs
September 26, 2025

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, I want You to reign in my life, and to follow Your steps courageously. Help me to die to my own ambitions and make me shine with what is good and true. Amen.

IMPROVE YOUR DAY!
Powerful Catholic prayers are available on our YouTube channel.

Today’s Readings:

Haggai 2:1-9
Ps 43:1-4 (with 5)
Luke 9:18-22
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092625.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-september-26-2025

Who do you really say Jesus is?

We evangelize every day. Deliberately or not, consciously or not, we are evangelizers. The question is what are we evangelizing about? What kind of Jesus are we teaching to others?

One of the most frequent ways that we evangelize about the truth is by genuinely living true faith — especially during hardships. We are being observed by people who are inexperienced at relying upon God. If we deal with problems without imitating Jesus in our attitudes and decisions, our behavior teaches others that God is not reliable, his teachings don’t matter, and he doesn’t actually care.

It’s not our words alone that evangelize; it’s what our lives say. It’s the message implied in our responses to everything that happens to us during the day. In the Gospel reading today, Jesus asks: “Who do YOU say that I am?” Did he mean, “Who do you SAY that I am?” as if he were more concerned about what comes out of our lips than out of our lives?

All too often, our words say one thing and our behavior another. People don’t believe our words if our lives don’t prove their validity. They can sense when our faith is not authentic. Young people are especially good at this. While we have them in Mass and while we have them in youth programs, the parents, priests, liturgists, ushers and greeters, youth ministers and catechists, etc., had better be authentic in their faith and in their love. Plastic smiles that hide something un-Christ-like are easily noticed by their uncanny observational skills.

The unworded interrogation is: “Who do you say Jesus is? Who is he for you? How real is he for you? Is he everything that you tell me he is? Why should I obey the teachings of the Church when you haven’t bothered to see if you can get an annulment after your divorce? Why should I trust God if you tell me you pray and yet you worry so much? Why should I remain chaste with my dates after I’ve seen you enjoy movies and TV shows that glorify unmarried sex?”

Young people are looking for authentic examples of God. Teenagers and young adults are in transition, moving from childhood’s unquestioning acceptance of their parents’ faith into an adult ownership of their own faith. They are “chadults” — no longer children, but not yet true adults until they own the responsibilities of adulthood. This stage might last many years. It’s hampered by every inauthentic Christian they meet.

The same is true for older people as well. Good people who don’t go to church are not looking for ways to reject true faith. What they’re seeking is proof that the faith we preach is truly beneficial to embrace. Every person they encounter in the Church who fails to be Christ-like sends them off seeking God in other directions, if they seek him at all.

The good news is: Our repentance from sin is a powerful way to show them authentic faith and the truth of God’s mercy and a faith worth believing.

For more on this subject, use our WordByte called: “Are you a stranger in your native land because of your faith?” @ https://wordbytes.org/spiritual-growth/living-as-a-stranger.

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