Elon Musk, Simone Biles, Dwayne ‘The Rock, Johnson, Mulan, Tony Stark. What do all of these people have in common? Ambition. They have this drive to be great. In the gospel for this Sunday, James and John, the Sons of Thunder, have ambition. All they want to do is sit on Jesus’s right and left and be the most awesome. And the crazy thing is Jesus doesn’t take that away from them. Jesus wants all of the apostles; he wants us to have ambition for him. But many times we have drive, we have ambition for the wrong things, whether it’s with our job, sports, or whatever it might be.
But Jesus wants us to have that ambition, that drive for him. So my invitation this Sunday and for the rest of the week is to let Jesus purify our ambition, purify our drive for him. This is Spirit Juice. Peace.
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Let Jesus Satisfy
St. John the Baptist might be the original hipster, organic locusts, honey, vintage camel hair, but more importantly, he was the first to point to Jesus and say, “Behold the Lamb of God.” He reminds us that only Jesus can truly satisfy. Even our best moments can still feel incomplete. One student described the “best day of her life” surrounded by everyone she loved… yet something was missing. She realized that missing piece was Jesus. Joy is good but without Him, it never feels whole. This Advent, get your priorities straight: let Jesus be the one who fills what nothing else can. Point to Him, stay focused, and don’t waste the weeks leading up to Christmas.
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Uncomfortable for Jesus
So Jesus sounds like Yoda for this Sunday’s gospel. He says the foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay His head. It sounds cryptic. What Jesus is not saying has anything to do with Airbnb accommodations, but the part of Jesus’ heart that he is sharing with us is that when it comes to following him, sometimes we have to be uncomfortable. I’m very awkward. I have no power…
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Something That Lasts
I recently took my college kids on a pilgrimage to Orvieto, Italy. Orvieto is the home to a Eucharistic Miracle, and I could talk about the Eucharistic Miracle all day. What is so crazy is that St. Thomas Aquinas lived during the time of this Eucharistic Miracle. St. Thomas Aquinas fell so deeply in love with Jesus and the Eucharist that he wrote “The Tantum Ergo.” “The Tantum Ergo” is sung every day around the world…
