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What do you do with people who give you discomfort? What do you do with people who are a pain in the neck? What do you do with things that cause you discomfort? What do you do with the part of the body that is aching all the time?
The normal reaction is to get rid of all kinds of irritants. The normal reaction is to make other friends and leave irritating ones. If we have a tumor or a cyst that is causing us pain, we go to the doctor and ask the doctor, “Can you remove by surgery this tumor or this cyst so that my body will be healthy again?” Or if our head is aching and we cannot, of course, cut it off, then you take an analgesic to take away the ache of the head, of the stomach, of the foot or the finger or whatever part of the body. That is the normal human behavior.
We discard the things, the events, or even the people, that bring us discomfort. But before we jump at that solution, let us again go over today’s scripture readings. Joseph was bringing discomfort to his brothers and they wanted to discard him. They wanted him killed and even if they just sold him, they got rid of him, nonetheless.
In the Gospel, the owner of the vineyard sent servants in order to tell them this is mine and you owe me something. But because these servants were bringing discomfort to the vine workers, they discarded the servants, they let go of the servants. They killed the servants. They even killed the son.
So what I’m saying is if some person brings us discomfort, if some thing brings us discomfort, or some event brings us discomfort, let us not immediately discard the irritant because the one who brings discomfort could also be God-sent, or may be a prophet God sent to us to tell us, “Reform your life and be better.” That person who brings us discomfort, that thing that brings us discomfort, that event that brings us discomfort is not necessarily a bad person or a bad event or a bad thing because that thing, that person, that event, could be God-sent like Joseph, like the son.
Be very careful because God wants us to keep getting better. He might send people who might bring us discomfort, who might tell us things that we don’t like to hear. But if we listen the second, third and fourth time, we might realize that there is truth in what they are saying. And it is time to change.
FACING PAIN
Mt. 21:33-43, 45-46
Love Like Jesus
