Jesus was rejected, so do you!
The fact is that rejection can break us or make us stronger. It all depends how we handle it. We know that Jesus experienced rejection in many instances, so he is training his apostles, disciples and followers how to handle this process which is present some time or another in our spiritual journey.
Many people are somewhat familiar with what the military calls Basic Training or Boot Camp. Depending on the branch of service, this period of intense formation varies from six to thirteen weeks and is intended to prepare youngsters for whatever they may encounter during their time of service.
Marines, for instance, engage in a 13 week process, which, according to the U.S. Marine Corps Web site, “transforms a young person with the courage to succeed into a mature, highly disciplined, fully capable marine.” At the end of the 13 weeks, the trainees are challenged with a final test, called “The Crucible,” which is somewhat connected to the “Cross.” It is designed to emphasize the importance of teamwork in overcoming adversity. The Crucible is a 54 hours field training exercise demanding the application of everything the recruit has learned thus far. Following their successful completion of the Crucible, the traines are treated to a special meal and are formally recognized at their graduation as full fledged marines.
Our Lord is training his disciples because they will undergo some tough times, for instance rejection and persecution. Rejection is part of our lives, we like it or not. Suppose you have a job as a sales person going door to door to promote and sell the product and you tried to work as hard as you can (10 hours a day), knocking at 100 doors a day. Statistics show that only 10% would even open the door and only 3% will possibly buy your product. Now you had to face 97 slammed doors and barking dogs and some small children saying to you, “Mom said she is not here.” Would you not feel discouraged and rejected as Jesus did? Rejection is an ugly word, it is painful.
Let’s see how Jesus reacted to rejection and our possible reactions. Our first reaction would be to retaliate. When we are hurt, we instictively want to defend ourselves by getting even. We want them to feel the pain we feel or more. Unfortunately, this is also the reaction of the apostles James and John, as reported by St. Luke the Evangelist. “…Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him, but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and went to another village.” (Lk.9:51-56).
You don’t have to burn bridges to follow Jesus ! Jesus had already instructed his disciples how to handle rejection: “just wipe the dust off your sandals and move on” (Lk. 9:5). Jesus always offers a better solution: change rejection into love. We should keep in mind that God is not the enemy of our enemy. Anger is not a good reason to retaliate. God’s way is not retaliation, but reconciliation. God is in the business of transforming enemies into allies, competitors into companions, strangers into family. Social codes call for punishment, Jesus’ codes call for understanding.
Jesus invites us to look forward not in the past. King Solomon failed because he turned back instead of going forward. The Pharisees turned back by using religion in the wrong way. Living in the past doesn’t heal rejection, it makes it more difficult. Living in the past may be sometime a good place to visit, definitely not a good place to stay.
There was a good old pastor who had a good practice to visit the parish school one day a week. He walked into the fourth grade class, where the children were studying the history of USA, and asked them how many states they could name. They came up with about 40 names. He then replied that in his days, students knew the names of all the states. One student raised her hand and said, “Yes, Father, in those days there were only 13 states!” So, my friends, do your math correctly: count your blessings, don’t look back, look forward and keep on counting!!!!
