ARE YOU A PEOPLE PLEASER?
In
more than 21 years of being a priest, I have discovered there are many
fundamental truths of ministry that are not subject to change. One of
them is that it is impossible to please all the people all the time. And
the biggest problem in trying to do this is that the person who is
least fulfilled is one’s self.
When we study the ministry of Jesus, we see that His main concern is
doing the will of His Father and the truth, not pleasing people. In
fact, His ministry often leads Him into conflict with the Jewish
leaders. This never stops Jesus from doing what He knows is needed in
order to remain faithful to the Gospel — to His Father’s will.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us He is resigned to the fact that there
will be people who will reject His ministry. The same is true for us,
but we cannot allow this rejection to cause us to give up. I love what a
priest friend says to himself, like a mantra, whenever he faces
adversity: Never give up; never give up; never give up! His other
attitude is whenever something doesn’t seem to work, then he simply
tries harder. In other words, “When something doesn’t seem to fit, push
harder!”
We need to persevere through adversity and difficulties in order to
reach the victory on the other side. We cannot do this without the grace
of God. We also have the example of Jesus’ life, where He simply pushes
through challenging times, including His own death, trusting that the
Father will ensure the victorious outcome — His resurrection from the
dead, the definitive victory over sin and death.
Living the Christian life is not easy. We will come up against people
who won’t like what we are doing. Let us not allow trials to bring us
down but see in our trials the opportunity for God to demonstrate His
power to triumph over adversity. Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
REFLECTION
QUESTIONS: Do you want to please people all the time? Are you more
afraid of peoples’ reactions to what you do or say than speaking the
truth in love?
Father, help me to love the truth in my life and always embrace it no matter how other people may react.
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