A Prophet is Without Honor Among His Own House
From Today’s Gospel:
Father Wilhelm told us about how this is not only true with Christ and the Prophets of the Bible, but with us, too. That in one sense we are prophets. We might not predict future events, but we speak the truth on behalf of God, through His Holy and Apostolic Church. Father told us that sometimes when he goes back to his hometown (I think it’s Lisbon, ND), that people don’t take him seriously because they remember him how he used to be, when he was younger, getting in trouble raiding gardens (I didn’t grow up in North Dakota, and we definitely didn’t raid gardens where I come from, must be a country thing). We are prophets and often the hardest place to get our message across is at home and with our families. That was the first point of his message. I relate. Right now I find it really hard to talk to my family about anything important to me because they don’t want to hear it, they remember the old Norm, they don’t readily believe the change that has overcome me since becoming Catholic. My home definitely does not “honor” me in any way. In some ways I have another family, all of the close friends I have made since coming to NDSU. And in the same sense, there is no honor there for me.
They are all against me in some way or another. Many of them say that they respect the decision to follow Christ to the Catholic Church, some of them are sincere, most of them are not, harboring some kind of belief that I have been mislead, love Jesus less now, or even am an idolater. Some of them are just so apathetic to hearing the truth. It’s not that they hate the RCC, but that they would just rather stay where they are becuase they are comfortable. Some of them are visibly hostile, refusing to converse about spiritual matters if I would defend the Catholic faith. Some of them publicly criticize me for my faith. Some of them privately chastize me for blindly following the Pope and my Bishop into some fairytale world. They often “force” me to choose between the Catholic faith and “Biblical truth” as if they are mutually exclusive. And these are my friends we’re talking about, the people I have been really close to since coming to college, the ones who filled in the gap left when one moves away from home after 18 years. No honor or respect there.
I’m not trying to complain, really I’m not, I’m just trying to state the obvious and the direct relation between what Christ says here, and the real experience I have had here in my life for the last six months since making my decision public.
The second point of Father Wilhelm’s homily was that despite being prophets without honor, we have a duty as Catholics, and as Americans, American-Catholics to never give up speaking truth to others, no matter what the consequences to ourselves. I have to remember that just because some people are too closed-minded does not mean that all are. I have seen faint rays of understanding in a few people and those rays are what God has given me to keep trudging on, speaking about the Catholic faith, dispelling myths and misconceptions.
Father,
We thank you first and foremost for allowing us to imitate Christ in his sufferings, in his dishonor among his own people. As hard as it is to have those closest to us reject us, we know it is to be expected and so we take it gracefully so that it may transform us. But our prayers will never cease for those who persecute us, who refuse to listen, or are apathetic to our message at all. We pray for their minds to be opened and for the continual and transitional conversion of their hearts and minds and souls. Amen
-NDB
