Saturday March 16, 2024

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“So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.” (From John 7:40-53)

Good News Reflection for:

Saturday of the 4th Week of Lent
March 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

Jeremiah 11:18-20
Ps 7:2-3,9bc-12
John 7:40-53
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-march-16-2024

How to heal from the sting of rejection

One of the sacrifices we make for Christ is rejection by friends and family and co-workers due to our faith. Can we learn to deal with it the way Jesus did? How to heal from the sting of rejection is one of the toughest lessons we must learn as Christians.

To be “holy” means to be different from the world. Counter-cultural. Making no compromises in the moral teachings of the Church. Being bold and daring enough, and confident in Christ enough, and in love with God enough to stand firm in what is right and true regardless of the consequences.

This is not easy. No sacrifice is easy or else it is not truly sacrificial. And today’s world preaches that sacrifices are a bad thing, that instead of making sacrifices we should cater to ourselves, our desires, and our ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong.

But even when we learn to stand strong in the truth regardless of the sacrifices this requires, the rejection by loved ones is heartbreaking. And that heartache cannot heal until we see Christ’s victory in their lives. And yet, God is bigger than that. He can heal our hearts.

I learned how to heal from the sting of rejection years ago when God miraculously took away the pain I felt from the complete rejection of my son: my son, who had helped build Good News Ministries while he was a teenager. In 2004, he announced, while I was in the middle of teaching a week-long school of evangelization in a seminary in Malawi, that he would never speak to Ralph and me again.

For the first several years of his rejection, God the Father allowed me to suffer the pain of it keenly, showing me that this is a tiny, little bit of how he feels about every child on the earth who is rejecting him. He allowed me to unite to him in this suffering. It increased my determination to be a faith-builder, to help others avoid the traps of Satan’s lies.

One morning in my prayer time, while I was moaning and crying to the Father, begging to know why prayers for my son’s rescue have not produced results yet, God took my pain away. In one instant, it was gone. It’s weird! Ever since then, I’ve continued to feel sorrow for my son’s (and now my daughter’s, too) loss of faith and the demonic traps they’re caught in. I grieve over the wrongness of their rejection of Christ and their rejection of me, but my heart does not feel broken.

What’s the Lord cooking up?

Who are you grieving for? Remember this: Your prayers for them are like the heat of a stove. God already has all the ingredients together, waiting for you to turn on the stove. The ingredients include your daily life, the hardships you’re undergoing, the various people involved, the hardships they need to endure, your trust in God, your faith growth and purification, etc.

Before you started praying, God already knew the recipe and how to prepare the ingredients. He even already began dicing the vegetables and seasoning the meat. And he knows how long to cook each part of the recipe so that when everything is fully cooked, you will be able to dine with him enjoying a most scrumptious banquet.

And remember this: The yummiest foods are those that have marinated the longest!

Sacrifices conquer the devil when we unite them to the Passion of Christ. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2-3). And ask Father God to give you a great big hug, like he did for me. His hug will heal you from the sting of rejection.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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