“Do not be discouraged if someone rejects or hates you. Remain in love as I always did. Perhaps, in this way, you can win their hearts.” (Inner Word)
On our journey, we may encounter people who reject us or even hate us. If we remain faithful in increasingly anti-Christian times, this can happen very easily—especially if we are unwilling to make concessions regarding faith and morals and stand firm in our convictions. These are moments of trial in which we can demonstrate our love for God, but also moments in which, with God’s grace, we can rise above ourselves.
If we remain in love even in the midst of such circumstances, it is a sign that divine love has already conquered our hearts and elevates our limited capacity to love into truly magnanimous, even divine, acts. This is precisely how our Lord Jesus Christ acted by virtue of his divine nature. Certainly, we do not possess a divine nature, but our heavenly Father grants us his grace and even makes us participants in his divine nature. And this grace enables us not to react in a merely human way to hostility and rejection by closing all doors, but rather to leave the way open to perhaps win the hearts of those who hate us.
This is undoubtedly a high demand. It is already a great deal if we suffer injustice and do not take revenge. But if we present to God all the feelings that arise in such a situation and ask him for the grace to respond in his way, then a new perspective is created—one that brings with it the possibility of change for the better, or at least does not rule it out.
No one wants to find themselves in a situation of rejection. But if it arises, we must face it with God’s grace. In this way, we grow in love and become more like the Lord!