Gospel Reflection – Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Yield the Right of Way

Both of today’s readings emphasize seeking the good of others over our own. In the first, deeply moving passage from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and his companions are in prison. Yet they calm the jailer and stop him from harming himself. His safety and well-being become more important to them than their own freedom or even their lives. Looking out for someone else’s good—before your own—is hard, complicated, and maybe even crazy. Yielding the right of way might mean getting stuck in place, watching others climb, succeed, move forward… Or, even more heroic, it might mean pushing others upward, helping them reach their highest good.

It’s not easy—especially in today’s world—to give up even a bit of our own comfort, security, wealth, or status for someone else. And even harder when that “someone else” is from the opposing side, like the jailer was. There doesn’t seem to be a reason strong enough to do something so absurd. But Paul had already discovered this kind of holy madness, and it never left him.

That same divine madness shows up in today’s Gospel as well:
“It is better for you that I go.”
When Jesus says this, it’s not for His own sake—it’s for the greater good of His disciples. Even if they find it hard to accept, this is the moment when they will receive the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit.

To say with Jesus, “It’s better that I step aside,” is to let go, to make space, to allow the Spirit to enter where I was taking up too much room. It means yielding, disappearing, making room for something far greater to come into someone else’s life.

Sometimes, it means not clinging to roles or titles—even if they seem small.
It means letting others do what I once thought only I could do best.

Yield the right of way.