I know some people who accept rejection and make it their identity. 

But there’s a better way: Love that person who rejected you but reject the rejection. In the Gospel, even Jesus was rejected by the people of His hometown. They questioned how Jesus, a carpenter’s son, could be capable of performing miracles. But that didn’t stop Him from carrying out His mission. 

When you go through a heartbreak, you’ll experience a season of grief. You can go before God, cry to Him, and give Him all your tears. After all, being unwanted hurts a lot. But after a time of mourning, you have to get up. Just because one person rejected you doesn’t make you unlikeable or unlovable. Because rejection is only a stopover. Every time you get rejected, remember: You’re closer to your destination in life.We have a beautiful future ahead. God made us and He will never reject us. 

Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

reflect

Rejections are painful, but it does not define you. You’re bigger than that because God made you for a purpose.

Father, I choose to look at You when the world seems to deny me of what I love, dream, or hope for. Grant me the courage to persevere through it all. I am Your beloved and I am worthy because You made me in Your likeness.

St. Alphonsus Liguori, bishop, pray for us.

Feasts are reminders of the important moments in salvation history. Some of these moments have even become holidays. For Christians, the two most important feasts are Christmas and Easter. How do we celebrate them? Do we allow them to remind us of our faith or do we simply treat them as a holiday? 

¹ The Lord said to Moses, ⁴ “These are the festivals of the Lord which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly. ⁵ The Passover of the Lord falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight. ⁶ The fifteenth day of this month is the Lord’s feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work. ⁸ On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the Lord. Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work.” ⁹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Speak to the children of Israel and tell them: When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, ¹¹ who shall wave the sheaf before the Lord that it may be acceptable for you. On the day after the sabbath the priest shall do this. ¹⁵ “Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf, you shall count seven full weeks, ¹⁶ and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, you shall present the new cereal offering to the Lord. ²⁷ “The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement, when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves and offer an oblation to the Lord. ³⁴ “The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Lord’s feast of Booths, which shall continue for seven days. ³⁵ On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly, and you shall do no sort of work. ³⁶ For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the Lord, and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and offer an oblation to the Lord. On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work. ³⁷ “These, therefore, are the festivals of the Lord on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly, and offer as an oblation to the Lord burnt offering and cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 81:3-4, 5-6, 10-11

R: Sing with joy to God our help.

³ Take up a melody, and sound the timbrel, the pleasant harp and the lyre.  ⁴ Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast. (R) ⁵ For it is a statute in Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob, ⁶ who made it a decree for Joseph when he came forth from the land of Egypt. (R) ¹⁰ There shall be no strange god among you nor shall you worship any alien god. ¹¹ I, the Lord, am your God who led you forth from the land of Egypt. (R) 

Gospel | Matthew 13:54-58

As a preacher, it is impossible to please people all the time. However, if we are going to speak with the voice of a prophet, we must be ready to make more enemies than friends. When we speak the truth, people won’t thank us. In the first place, it is our duty to speak the truth, and those we speak against will certainly not thank us. Being a prophet is often a thankless task.

Gospel Acclamation

The word of the Lord remains forever; this is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

⁵⁴ Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? ⁵⁵ Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶ Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” ⁵⁷ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” ⁵⁸ And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

Read the Bible in one year! Read 1 MACCABEES 3 - 4 today.

Ironic. Sad. A prophet is ignored, unappreciated, even diminished. “Where did this man get all that power to work wonders?” “Is he not the carpenter’s son?” “Don’t we know his mother, brothers, and sisters?” 

This is, without doubt, bad news. And it will remain so if it were the only point in today’s readings. But the Gospel is all about good news, even if the same good news is framed in a lot of bad news. The bad news is far-ranging. The Lord did not do many miracles there on account of their unbelief. It was a clear case of what public speakers now know as “audience sympathy.”

I have been preaching for forty-two years now and teaching for a whole lot longer. Readers who are also teachers can relate. We, teachers and preachers, do relatively well when there is audience sympathy—when our listeners show themselves receptive at the very least. Back in His hometown, Jesus was rejected, not appreciated. And He was right: “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house.”

This is good news in reverse. This is a subtle but powerful reminder for me and you. For, ultimately, this is not about the prophet, but about those who would not recognize the prophet. It was all about His townmates who did not show a modicum of audience sympathy.

We know who the loser in the story is. It is not the prophet who was prevented from doing wonders in that place. Everywhere else—wanted or unwanted, honored or otherwise, appreciated or rejected—He did what He was sent to do. 

Now, it’s our turn (on behalf of the Nazareth townmates) to utter: “Aww! Sayang!” A prophet turned up, and they failed to show up. 

Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

reflection question

What makes you appreciate a preacher or teacher—the person or the message? 

Lord, may I open my heart and mind to what Your anointed preachers say. Amen. 

Today, I pray for: _____________________________________