Thursday, December 09, 201

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 4:29-30

Do you every think of confrontation as an expression of love? Most of us do not. The Christian ideal for most people is gentleness, helping the downtrodden, smiling through adversity and living quietly in an evil world. That may be part of the message but, as we see in today’s scripture; it is by no means the whole story. We witness confrontation as well as a bitter debate between Jesus and the people of his own home town. Confrontation can be an act of love. In fact, it is much easier to avoid confrontation than to enter into it. Only when we love others enough to risk their displeasure and anger can we confront their selfishness. Parents should understand this better than most.

Confrontation is an unpleasant experience. Most of us would rather avoid it if at all possible. Love, however, often calls for correction. Honesty demands many confrontations of us. When children, for example, misbehave and especially when they show signs of moving away in the wrong direction, good parents will confront their children and demand a change. Today, they call this tough love. Not tough luck, just tough love. Something similar happens when citizens become convinced that their nations, which they love, have gone astray. Out of love for their country, they must confront evil where they see it and demand a change. How often we selfishly act as the people of Nazareth did when Jesus delivered His message of hope. We don’t take correction graciously. It is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. But, it is a good pill and will do us a world of good if we accept it humbly.

There is more than a bit of folk wisdom in today’s gospel. The closer and the more familiar people are to us; the more difficult it is to accept correction from them. This is true of a husband and wife, of parents and children, of peers in a job, or friends in a neighborhood. We hate to take correction from those we think are no more important than ourselves, especially if they are younger. Pride gets in the way.

St. Francis Xavier was not always a saint. In his younger life, he was a successful university student with the promise of becoming one of Europe’s great teachers. One of his fellow students, Ignatius of Loyola, was an older companion and seemed a bit of a dullard in comparison to the brilliant Francis. Yet, it was this fellow student who confronted Francis and asked him repeatedly what he planned to do with his life. Francis did not like the questions his companion kept asking and he stubbornly shrugged him off. Yet, the truth of the questions remained and in the end he stood corrected.

Ignatius risked a confrontation with Francis and helped him become what God wanted him to be.

Fr. Hugh Duffy