Sunday Reflection | Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024

As human beings, we want to be liked by other people. We care what people think about us and we want people to have a good impression of us. This is not a bad thing in and of itself - it stems from our natural desire for communion. We also know, however, that this desire can be warped. We all likely know someone who cares too much about what other people think and we all likely know someone who cares too little about what other people think. Neither of those extremes are good for us and actually pose barriers to true communion. The virtue between those extremes comes in finding the right things to care about.

Firstly, not all kinds of things are equally important. My favorite flavor of ice cream does not really have a significant impact on my life. There are those, however, who care so much about impressing others or being liked by others, that they would lie about trivial things like ice cream or musical tastes. There are also those who care so little that they will start endless arguments to have their opinion reign supreme. Again, these things don’t matter all that much. But, there are many things that do matter. Am I being perceived as being well-integrated or of good character? Of course, we need to ensure that the image is a reflection of the internal reality, and sometimes the image can be a good check to see if that is the case. The internal reality is more important, and so having those things, such as interior integration, will be good even if it is not perceived.

Similarly, not all people carry equal weight. A point of criticism from a random is generally not going to be the thing that changes my entire life. Although some criticism might shake me up a little bit, the stranger does not really know me and is not going to be a good sounding board of the reality of who I am. A close friend, however, is going to carry significant weight. A friend will know me, and so what they say will be more likely to reflect the reality of who I am.

Putting these two principles together, we find that there are some points that matter, and we want to be excellent in those areas and we want others to have a perception of that excellence, at least to some extent. We also find that not everyone’s perception or opinion of me matters - there are some that certainly do, but I’m not going to live my life trying to win the affection of everyone.

This is exactly where Jesus provides us with great wisdom. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus be misunderstood and poorly evaluated. There are, of course, those who did understand Him, and so followed Him. Our Gospel reading for this Sunday has people claiming that Jesus is “out of His mind.” Yet, Jesus does not abandon His mission. He places just the right amount of weight on his public perception - enough where there would be those who would follow Him, but not so much that He compromises who He is. This can be a great model for us - to care enough where we want to be effective in our God-given mission, but not so much that we abandon that mission to “please” everyone.

Jesus says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Those who Jesus claims as close to Him are those who hear God’s will and carry it out. Jesus is showing us whose opinions carry the most weight. If Jesus is the source of life, then those who follow that way are the ones whose opinions matter the most the most because they themselves understand what matters the most. We have in our Church the entire communion of saints. They are not just moral legends, but they are mystically united with us even now. They are already enjoying heaven with God. Those are the opinions that I would like to care about. What would St. Peter say about me? What would St. Catherine of Siena say about me? Would they be proud of me? If I am trying to be a disciple of Christ and get to heaven, then the opinions of the saints and those living truly holy lives on earth are what will help guide my course.

It can be difficult to be a disciple of Jesus in this day and age. There are those who may look at the ones trying to follow Christ as “Jesus freaks” or as people living a fantasy. Well, those opinions really don’t matter - they don’t understand God and so shouldn’t become an obstacle to following God. Please God, there might come an opportunity to help them to know God, but that is not for me to contrive. To stay the course, let’s look to those who have already run the race and those who are running it well now.