Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso: “Through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus.”
St. Therese of Lisieux said; “Without me, you can do nothing. With you, Jesus, I can do all things. Since it is through Jesus that everything must be accomplished, the more I let Him do, the more the work of grace will be beautiful and perfect.”
This is just what we hear in our scripture passages today. Even though we heard that rejection was often found in preaching the Word of God, the ones that got it, the ones who really heard, went on to spread this Good News in obedience and humility, fully giving themselves to God.
Otherwise we would not be here, in this church, giving praise to God. And if not for our hearing the word of God, where will the next generation be? Hopefully in this same place giving praise to God.
We hear from Ezekiel that the Spirit entered into him, stood him on his feet and commissioned him to go to the people of Israel and preach to them. During his commission, Ezekiel was warned that there was a possibility that the people would reject the message he was delivering from God. But, whether they heard or refused to hear, they would know that there had been a prophet among them.
Humbly obeying and abandoning himself to God, scripture tells us that Ezekiel did serve the Lord God by going to the people. He preached to them, and the word of God was rejected by many. If it were not for those who heard, where would we be?
When we hear of the days of Ezekiel, they remind us of our own calling. As Catholics who have been baptized and confirmed, we who have received the seal of the Holy Spirit have been called to total abandonment to the Lord Jesus; we have been sent forward to obey and serve God in all humility.
As Ezekiel was called to preach, whether they heard or not, we too have been sent to testify regarding the Word of God to our children, our spouse, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our relatives, friends, our co-workers and all those we come in contact with. Whether they hear or not is not important although it would be nice. What is important is that God is provided with the opportunity to manifest Himself through us so that when the day of judgement comes those who appear before him will not be able to say, “Lord, you never spoke to me.”
No one that I know likes rejection. People handle rejection in many ways. Here is one that I thought you might like. This letter is from a college student who was going to graduate and was responding to a rejection letter from a prospective employer. The college student named Marc Taylor wrote in reply to this rejection letter with this: “Dear Mr. Ezell; Thank you for your letter of July 17th. After careful consideration I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me employment with your firm. This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of corporate candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals for employment.
Despite your company’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I will initiate employment with your firm immediately following graduation. I look forward to seeing you then. Best of luck in rejecting future candidates. Sincerely, Marc Taylor! Many forms, many ways of handling rejection.
Can you remember your first rejection and how you handled it? I surely can remember mine. I remember very vividly the first time I asked a girl for a date. I was in eighth grade and guess what? She didn’t want t a thing to do with me. I was devastated to say the least. My world had stopped in its tracks.
But, somehow, there came another. I didn’t think there would be another! Well, I was accepted into her world. We had a date, just one, but a date, and it was great. We met and had a great time together at the church bazaar.
As you can see, there are many forms of rejection. God does know this, however He still calls us to bring the Good News to all who will hear and not worry about those who don’t, those who reject His words because of their lack of faith. In today’s gospel we heard how Jesus served the Father in obedience and humility. This is how we are to serve also. This is what Paul in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians is talking about, humility.
Paul says: “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints, for the sake of Christ.” Paul found rejection everywhere he went in his ministry. You see, God is teaching Paul and all of us, humility. Humility brings us to the point where we recognize our own failures, our own imperfections. Then we see that we do not have the right to judge another for theirs. We then can handle what is thrown our way. We also open ourselves to follow God’s will, not ours. We can’t be any stronger at that point and St. Paul got it when he said, “For when I am weak then I am strong.”
Jesus humbled Himself and served God the Father in total obedience to God’s will and obeyed until the end. Jesus humbled Himself and became totally obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Of course, Jesus also had rejection. Jesus went to his hometown and taught in the synagogues. As we heard in the gospel, few believed in Him because they personally knew Him as the son of Mary. Just imagine how Jesus felt. I know He must have felt much more deeply than I could have ever felt about my first rejection, and that was pretty bad as I can remember!
My friends, today’s readings call all of us to awaken our hearts so we may see the Divine truth beyond our human appearance of those we know, obeying and serving God the Father. Yes, we will see more rejection in our lives, but Jesus will never reject us. He offers Himself at every Mass so that we can have strength to move on in proclaiming the Good News given us. He is always with us as we face those times where we feel all alone and rejected, no matter what has caused us to feel that way. Let us give ourselves in full obedience and abandonment with humility to the will of God in our lives.
As the power of the Holy Spirit was manifested through Jesus Christ, so it is in the Holy Catholic church, be it through the priest who is administering the sacraments, a deacon who is tending to the needs of the poor and vulnerable, a Christian Brother who is teaching in a classroom, or a religious sister who is administering in a hospital. All of us are called into action and by the power of the Spirit who shown through the life of Jesus, so it will be with us.
Per ipsum et cum ipso et in ipso—Through Jesus, with Jesus, and in Jesus. “Without us, you can do nothing. With you, Jesus, we can do all things.