Rejection and reconcilliation

The lives, preaching and example presented in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today tell of the paradox in which the Good News brings disagreement, dispute and persecution to the faithful. The persecution of the early members of the Synagogue who were followers of the Way of Jesus is described in the Book of Acts to be of sufficient intensity to cause families to be separated, people placed in prison and believers scattering from Jerusalem. The persecution of people worldwide for their religious practice continues to be a daily terror. The path of Christ which believers choose is one which for Jesus and many of the saints of the history of the Church, including SaintKateri Tekakwitha, remembered today,  has passed through suffering, rejection, persecution and death. It is marked by forgiveness and healing offered to persecutors. It is crowned by eternal intimacy with Jesus which is proclaimed in the Gospel from John today as being brought to Him and raised up to life in Him. Daily intimate contact with the Divine Jesus occurs in many ways for believers. Disagreement among Christians, ironically, about the nature of this intimacy is the ongoing scandal of our faith when it leads to the dispute, disagreement, rejection and persecution of brothers and sisters who have accepted His invitation to come to Him, be gathered up according to the Will of the Father and never be lost.