It is getting close to election time. As such, in the near future, I bet many of us are going to have uncomfortable conversations with friends or family because their thoughts and choices don’t align with ours. As we know, those conversations can even devolve into verbal attacks. The uneasy feelings that result can be overwhelming and make us want to insulate ourselves from the outside world. Discomfort can also come from times when we read scripture or hear a homily at Mass and are challenged by the message because we are falling short in how we live our lives. This reality of discomfort coming from both outside sources and inside ourselves is a reality when we live as disciples of Jesus! Fortunately, we can look to this week’s readings for inspiration as to how we can manage the discomfort of following him.
Our first reading provides some guidance regarding confrontation with the attitudes of the world around us. To “set my face like flint,” knowing that “the Lord GOD is my help,” points to the fact that our silence is often the best answer. Think about it; it’s rare to engage in a verbal altercation with someone and have them come away from that encounter totally won over to our point of view! As mentioned in the Gospel, taking up our cross involves losing our lives for Jesus’ sake. In practice, that “losing” is often a willingness to set our egos aside in order to let Jesus, or Jesus’ message, take center stage. While not providing us with an opportunity to prove how smart or “good” we are, a simple “that’s not what I believe,” followed by silence, repeated if necessary, states our position without the extra words that the other person is, probably, going to shut out, anyway. Furthermore, the beauty of de-escalating a disagreement in this way is that the resulting silence provides a space for the Spirit to enter, especially if we ask in prayer. Knowing that God is with us as we uphold justice, love, and peace is quite the consolation for a bruised ego. Moreover, hopefully, this technique also provides us with the time to feel understanding and compassion for those who persecute us—and to pray for them, as well.
As mentioned before, in addition to external influences, we have times when we find ourselves confronted by our internal discomfort as we struggle to live as disciples of Jesus. The second reading reminds us that, sometimes, we separate faith from life, especially when actually behaving like a follower of Jesus proves to be uncomfortable. For example, I think most of us have taken on a “what’s in it for me” kind of attitude when making a decision, like voting, barely considering if others would be negatively affected. Furthermore, we may practice our faith and go to church every Sunday but fail to help the poor person on the side of the street, turning our heads the other way when we see them. Sure, each of these scenarios represents complex situations, yet in the second reading, we hear, “Faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Essentially, the scripture is saying that thoughts and prayers, while good and purposeful, aren’t putting food in people’s bellies. We have a choice; when confronted with our failing to actually act upon our faith, the discomfort that results can be one that we embrace—or one that we push aside. Again, from the Gospel, we hear, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Taking up our crosses involves not shying away from these situations but instead using them to propel us toward “doable” actions that provide us the opportunity to live our faith through “works.”
To conclude, whether our source of discomfort is an external influence that rubs us the wrong way or the internal disquiet of struggling to put our faith into action, we have the choice of pushing those feelings aside or embracing them. Nobody likes to be upset or feel lousy, but embracing that discomfort and using it as motivation for action, even when that action is silence, is key to building the “faith-and-works” connection and having a hand in building God’s kingdom here on earth.
