REFLECTIONS  ON  REJECTIONS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time [C] is, “Reflections on Rejections.”

What are your reflections on rejections?

How have you dealt with the rejections of life?

In the beauty contests of life - no one wins every one of them.

How have you done when you came in second place - or you didn’t even place - or you didn’t even make the team - or the cut - and you feel cut?

Have you ever said or felt like saying, “What am I chopped liver?” or “What am I chum for sharks?” or  “I feel like you’re throwing me under the bus.”

Rejections can feel like a massage with sandpaper. It can be tough being phased-out, fired, retired, or forgotten.

Tough topic for today.

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings triggered  the topic and the theme for this homily and it’s not even Lent.

In today’s first reading Jeremiah gives us some reflections on being rejected.

Prophets are rejected - especially when they tell the truth. As we know - the truth often hurts - but it can set us free.  

However, when people sense a correction or a suggestion that will hurt is coming - the speaker, the prophet, is often rejected.   

When we're baptized, we're anointed prophets, priests and kings - and queens. 

However, being a prophet - speaking up - let's be honest, it's a calling we often avoid. Everyone knows the messenger is often shot - shot down. 

Parents are often prophets when they are trying to tell their kids they can date better. But kids won’t listen till they are crying in their beer - another choice prophets and parents are always screaming about - telling about - hinting about - and rejected for.

Jeremiah hears the Lord telling him to stand up and tell others all that I command you. Then the Lord adds, “Be not crushed on their account!”

The Lord tells Jeremiah that I “have made you a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass.” Prophets need good bullet proof vests.

That’s the first reading.

Today’s gospel has Jesus being celebrated till he starts challenging - especially his home town. He fires back at them that prophets are never accepted in their home town.

Once more parents and siblings tell someone in the family when they are playing with fire - and they are going to be burnt - if they continue as is.

Rejections - reactions - remarks soon follow.

"Well, what about when you...?"

Today’s gospel ends with his whole town driving Jesus out of town. They want to throw him off a hill on which their town was built - but he passes through their midst and went away. I don’t know how Jesus did that, but that’s how Luke tells the story.

THE CROSS

We Christians have as our central symbol the Cross. It’s THE ultimate sign of rejection.

We have that big gigantic cross up front - at St. John Neumann’s Church. The big one here is in the back - off to the side on the way out. 

Big crosses  scream out the message of rejection loud. I heard that some didn’t want that big cross at St. John Neumann’s.

Sometimes I think that big cross is too much - too tough - too in your face. 

Would butterflies and the beautiful birds of the air be better? How about the Risen Christ? 

I wonder at times how much in the  past 15 or so years, how has that big cross at St. John Neumann influenced the reflective life of those who come to Mass here. 

I got the thought it could be even tougher - if it was a really blood crucifix. Or what would it be like to have added to the wall the cross is attached to - a black paint sprayed on graffiti word, “Reject.”

Imagine having that word as a nickname?

I don’t know about you, but I never liked preaching that says that our rejections and our sins - were hitting and hurting Jesus the day he died on Calvary.  

Yet - yet - yet - I have to keep on reflecting on the impact of my mistakes. How do my words, my sins, my way of treating others, my gossip, hit the  Body of Christ.

The title of my homily for today is, “Reflections on Rejections.”

BIRMINGHAM

I’m sure you heard the poem “When Jesus Came to Birmingham.” It's Birmingham in England - from which our city in Alabama is named.  

It’s a poem by G. A. Studdert-Kennedy. It goes like this:

WHEN JESUS CAME TO BIRMINGHAM

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do, '
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary. 

HOW WE TREAT ONE ANOTHER

This will be a good homily if we reflect on rejections and then we treat one another better this week than last  week. 

This will be a good homily if we reflect on rejections and then we love one another better this week than last week.

How can we love one another better? Answer: by putting into practice all the things what love is like in today’s second reading: being patient, being kind, not being jealous, not being rude, not seeking our own interests, not rejoicing when another makes a mistake, and on and on and on.

There are lots of people crouching against a wall and crying for Calvary.

Translation: the Birmingham poem triggers the thought of suffering alone being worse than suffering with others around.

There are lots of people who feel all alone because they have experienced the one or all of the 4  D’s: Divorced, Dumped, Dissed or Dropped.

Then there are the little rejections. 

How many times have we been in a conversation and someone else jumps right into the middle of  our conversation in person or by cell or iPhone? 

How many times have we experienced someone yawning in our face, looking at their watch or looking over our shoulder as we're telling them a fabulous story? 

FEELING ALL ALONE

The Bible says very early on that it's not good to be alone. Even Adam and Eve hid from God - who wanted to walk with them in the cool of the evening.

I have in my room a Styrofoam cup with some writing on it. It's something someone told me about a girl in West Virginia. She was in a small college and was doing horrible and an academic dean asked her why she was there. 

She answered, “I came here to be went with and I ain’t been went with yet.”

When I heard that at a coffee break in a small parish I was preaching at in Southern Ohio just across the Ohio River from West Virginia, I said, “Let me write that down?" And I fished out of my pocket a ballpoint pen and wrote those words on my Styrofoam coffee cup - without spilling my coffee.

There are millions of people on this planet who cry that same cry, “I came here to be went with and I ain’t been went with yet.”

The opposite of rejection is acceptance.

Our pope has declared this year, the year of “Welcome” - “Mercy” - “You matter!”

The Christian is called to be Christ - to be like Christ - to welcome all people. The Christian is called to spend time and love and self with others - and take away some of those feelings of rejection that so many people feel.

Where to start: in house - in one's own home.

Where to start: in heart - in one's own heart.

CONCLUSION

This week, I would challenge myself and all people to start with oneself and with God.

Unless we feel acceptance and being loved by God - who sent Jesus into our own home and heart, to accept us - then we won’t be bringing that God of love - that God love - to others.

If we feel rejected by God, then we might do the same to others by rejecting others.

So start with self and then bring the love God feels towards us - towards others.

When we love one another, we are taking away the rejections of our world. Amen.