Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (August 3, 2018): The blessing of being rejected

Do you feel opposed? Treated unjustly? Are there friends who wrongfully reject what you’ve said, as if you’re an enemy trying to hurt them or mislead them? Are you bearing insults because of your faith? Do your own family members outcast you because of your zeal for the house of God? If so, Psalm 69 is your song!

The prophet Jeremiah felt the same way. As we see in today’s first reading, he delivered the message that God had commissioned him to speak, and the people hated him for it. Whenever we stand up for the truth, there are always those who resent us. But if we’ve spoken with compassion, without an attitude of superiority, and with genuine concern for others, the only reason we get rejected is that they prefer to live in darkness.

Jesus understands how you feel. In today’s Gospel reading, he was disbelieved simply because he was too familiar to the people of his home town. They remembered him as Joseph’s kid or maybe as a baby conceived illegitimately. Their memories of his youthfulness distracted them from seeing his true identity as the Savior of the world. Similarly, you and I are rejected by those who know us too well.

Rather than get upset about this, we should use it to deepen our own humility. Being accepted by God should be our primary goal; it’s only his opinion of us that really matters. As long as God approves of us, the fact that others accept us or reject us is a moot point.

As a matter of fact, being rejected by the very people who should praise us is beneficial to our spiritual growth! St. Teresa of Avila said: “God deliver us from people who wish to serve him yet who are mindful of their own honor” (from “The Way of Perfection“, chapter 12). When we want to be accepted because it feels good, we’re caught in the trap of self-centeredness. St. Teresa called it the temptation of “vainglory” (vanity); to do God’s will and then expect others to praise us for it is a “poison” that is “fatal to perfection” (it destroys the love and holiness within us).

We should want nothing but to please God and we should expect no reward but his happiness.

It’s difficult to remain humble while being accepted and praised. It’s harder still when, after being rejected, we become focused on “I’m right! They’re wrong!” When we exercise humility, we mourn the darkness in the other person’s soul more than we cry about being rejected. In humility, we pray: “Lord, replace my anger and my self-pity with tears of concern.”

Thus we become united to the healing wounds of Jesus, and the rejection no longer stings as a personal attack.

Forgive me Lord, because my pride so often controls me. Make me humble to be aware of my poverty and to place my strength in You only, and to serve my brothers and sisters. Amen.