Sts. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church

Ordinary 15 – B, July 16, 2006                                                                                                                                              No. 4-06
Amos 7:12-15, Eph1: 3-14, Mark 6:7-13
Fr. Carl McCarthy

Consider these tough facts of people who have experienced rejection on their road to success.

• After actor Fred Astaire’s first screen test, the testing director said, “He can’t act. Slightly bald! Can dance a little.”
• Socrates was called “an immoral corruption to the youth.”
• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for a lack of ideas.
• Thomas Edison’s teacher said that he was too stupid to learn anything.
•  Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded with the automobile.
• Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections, failed in business twice and suffered a nervous break down before he was elected as president.
• Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.
• Beethoven’s teacher called him a hopeless composer because he did not know how to hold a violin.
• Richard Hooker worked for seven years on the humorous war novel M*A*S*H and was rejected by 21 publishers before it made it to the big screen and then to the TV.
• Tom Brokaw began his career as a news room clerk was told that he would never make it as a reporter.
• Michael Jordan was cut from the high school basketball team for a lack of skill.

How do we deal with rejection?  Rejection is certainly something that we face on our journey.  What do we do when people do not like our ideas or support the gifts and talents that we feel we have?  De we abandon our wants and our desires at the hands of another?  Or do we plant our feet evermore deeper, dig into the well of our heart where we find strength and keep trudging along on this journey called life? 

As can be seen by the lives of some of our great actors, philosophers, scientist, musicians, writers and athletes the road to success is a bumpy one. They experienced great trial and rejection along the way.  But they did not give in to the whimpering of others, but kept moving forward and found strength in the difficulties that they endured. St. Paul tells us that it is when we are at our weakest point that we are the strongest.  

In listening to the Word of God that was proclaimed today we hear two instances of rejection.  We hear the priest Amazaih tell the prophet Amos that he is not wanted in Bethel. It was a time of great military success and an economic boom and the ways of God were not welcomed there.  But Amos still listened to God and succeeded in bringing the message to the people of Israel. 

We also hear Jesus summon the disciples, sending them out two by two and giving them authority over the power of evil and the ability to cure the sick. But he also tells them that they will experience rejection and their words will fall on deaf ears. They will enter towns and homes where they will not be wanted and they will be asked to leave. Do not be discouraged he says; shake the dust of that town from your feet and move on to the next place with the word of God that has been planted within you. 

This symbolism of shaking the dust from your feet is like saying I am not going to take this rejection with me.  Instead, I am going to continue to work with the gifts and talents that I have been given.  I will work to get rid of those pieces of my life that may weigh me down. I will continue to know of the love of God that has been planted within me through baptism. I will use those moments of rejection as sacrifice, I will learn from them and grow not in hardness of heart, but in wisdom, and, like Jesus, I too will rise to new life. 

sdrose@bellsouth.net
       8-2-2006