name calling

Acts 11:19-26; Psalm 87 All you nations, praise the Lord; John 10:22-30

One of the things that we deal with often at the school is the young people making fun on each other.  They are often clowning around.  Sometimes they can be creative with their humor.  Sometimes they can be cruel with their humor.  

A few times they get caught up in 'name-calling.'  It usually does not end up well.  Someone is sent to the office while someone else usually gets their feelings hurt.  Either way, hearts are bruised and love's opportunity slips away. 

In today's first reading  we learn about how the followers of Christ in Antioch were being called "christians."  The term was derogatory and contemptuous.  It was a name that was meant to be an insult.  Antioch was a place of moral degradation, with temple prostitutes and indulgent practice and games.  It was a spectacle for the senses.  So the Christians were considered to be somewhat "prudish."  They chose the moral high road and got made fun of because of it.

Some things never change.  Even today, some 1900 years after Antioch, the name of "Christian"continues to breathe contempt in the heart of many.  In our society, especially in the United States, those who live their Christian Faith firmly and totally are looked down upon as freaks.   Our society loves Christians who are nominal only but not necessarily those who are truly convicted.

Everywhere we look, the teachings of Christ are being undermined and the belief of Christians are being threaten with legal action or in the media.  As a country, we pride ourselves in accepting all creeds and all beliefs, yet  Christians, especially Catholics, have become the end of many a jokes. 

This is okay.  We do not come to be accepted.  We do not come to be liked.  We do not come to be understood.  We come to transform.  We come to take a stand for goodness and uprightness. We come to bring light to those in darkness.  We come to be salt of the earth.  We come to be made fun of if it means the message remains true to Christ himself, because we hold firmly to the words of Jesus in the gospel, 

"My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand."    

So we keep living the message boldly and daringly.  We let the names fall where they will. We let the voices echo around us.  We expose ourselves to the world.  We know we are in good hands; we know His hands are strong and secure.  We know his hands are those that bore the insult first.  We know that He endured the name calling as well.  We simply follow in his stead with heads held high, love in our hearts, truth on our lips, hope in our minds, and faith in our souls.  Like in Antioch, we trust that "the grace of God" will be made manifest even in the midst of the name calling.

Excerpt from the the office of readings, St. Chrysologus:

"Listen the Lord's appeal: in me I want you to see your own body, your members, your heart, your bones, your blood.  You may run away from me as your Lord, but why not run to me as your father.  Do not be afraid.  The cross inflicts a mortal injury, not on me, but on death.  The nails no longer pain me, but only deepen your love for me.  I do not cry out because of these wounds, but through them i draw you into my heart.  My body was stretched on the cross as a symbol, not of how much I suffered, but of my all-embracing love.  I count it no loss to shed my blood: it is the price I have paid for your ransom.  Come, then, return to me and learn to know me as your father, who pays good for evil, love for injury, and boundless charity for piercing wounds...present your bodies as a living sacrifice.  Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity.  Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection.  Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet-smelling incense of prayer.  Take up the sword of the Spirit.  Let your heart be an altar.  Then with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice.  God desires not death but faith; God thirst not for blood but self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will."