In the early 1900s, two brothers with no college degrees, no government funding, and a bicycle shop as their workshop were chasing an idea many people called madness; they wanted to build something that could make human beings fly. Orville and Wilbur Wright believed that humans would someday fly through the air like birds. But newspapers ridiculed them. Scientists dismissed them. Friends advised them to give it up and “stick to bicycles.” Just months before their first successful flight, the New York Times published an article saying it would take “one to ten million years” before humans would fly.
Yet on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers took turns launching the first powered, controlled, and sustained airplane flight in history. They were doubted, laughed at, and rejected. Today, their names are written into the very sky that once mocked them.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is doing something that may seem ordinary at first glance but is revolutionary. He sends out seventy-two disciples, two by two, to every town and place he intends to visit. This action of Jesus is not just a mission trip; it is a transfer of authority, an extension of his work through the hands of ordinary followers. And right in the heart of his instructions, Jesus gives his disciples this warning: “Whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you.’” By these words, he prepares them for the possibility of rejection. In other words, “Expect rejection, but do not let it stop your mission.”
Jesus is very clear in his instructions to his disciples: not everyone will welcome the Gospel. Not everyone will appreciate your light. Not everyone will open the door. But that must not stop you. Go! Speak! Heal! Proclaim! And above all, Love! Jesus did not sugarcoat what was ahead of them. He did not say, “They will all love you.” He said, “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” To be forewarned is to be forearmed. He did not want them to be taken unaware by rejection. He knew that rejection is not failure, so he tells them what to do when anyone rejects them and their message. Jesus, being God, could have gone spiritually to arrest the minds of those the disciples would visit so that they would cooperate with the message of the disciples, but he did not do that. It means there is something good hidden in the rejection. There is a lesson we learn from rejection that we can never get from acceptance.
Each of us in this world is here on a unique mission. Many of us do not actualize our potential for fear of rejection. My dear friends, let me ask you this: What dreams have you buried because someone laughed at it? What calling have you silenced because someone criticized it? What gift has God placed in you that is gathering dust because you are afraid of hearing “No”? We live in a culture that fears rejection. We avoid it like the plague. But the Gospel today teaches us something countercultural and powerful: God’s mission is not reserved for those who are never rejected, but for those who are not afraid of rejection. Think of how many people in Scripture who came out great despite rejection: Joseph’s brothers rejected him and sold him into slavery; Moses’ own people rejected him; David’s father overlooked him when Samuel came to anoint a King from Jesse’s family; People told Jeremiah that he was too young; Paul suffered rejection and imprisonment; and Jesus faced rejection from his hometown. Yet, they all moved forward because their obedience to the mission was stronger than their fear of rejection. So, the enemy of your calling is often not your weakness; it is your fear of what others might think or say if you step forward.
When the disciples returned from their mission, they came back with joy: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name!” They came with this success story because they had stepped out in obedience, even at the risk of rejection.
My Dearly Beloved in Christ, imagine if the Wright brothers had waited until the world believed in them before they built the plane. Imagine if Jesus had waited until everyone welcomed him before beginning his mission. Imagine if the disciples waited for human approval instead of divine commission and power. You and I would not be here. So, do not wait for the world to say “Yes” before you move in faith. The kingdom of God does not advance by people who play it safe; it moves forward through people who dare to obey, even when they are not applauded. When you face doubts, remember that everything is usually impossible until someone does it. What if that someone is you?
Homily for 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 2025
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