When others don’t understand us, God does

A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Find today’s readings here.

Have you ever felt so misunderstood by those around you, even those you love, that you feel alone? 

Maybe your friends and family don’t understand why you attend ICE protests and continually question you about it, even though you are following the call of the Gospel, affirmed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Maybe you are drawn to a different form of Eucharistic worship other than the Ordinary Form of the Mass and other Catholics around you don’t understand why you would be. Or, as I encounter often in my work as Assistant Director of Outreach, the L.G.B.T.Q. ministry of America Media, maybe you are gay and attend Mass regularly with your partner, and other L.G.B.T.Q. people as well as Catholics don’t understand why you would want to be there. 

Our readings today remind us that God is always with us and “gets” us, even when others are not and do not. 

The first reading from the second book of Samuel recalls David’s mourning over Saul, his rival to the Israelite throne, and especially Saul’s son, Jonathan. Jonathan and David, as the Scriptures share with us, had a loving relationship, even though they should have been enemies as rivals to the throne of the Israelite kingdom. Yet, when David hears Jonathan’s death, he proclaims:

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother! most dear have you been to me; more precious have I held love for you than love for women. 

One can only imagine how isolated David felt, not only in that he is mourning the death of one who is supposed to be his rival, but that he mourns one with whom he had love “more precious…than love for women.” But yet, it is this same David that continues to serve as a great king of Israel and extol the God who never fails him, seen clearly in the 150 Psalms ascribed to David. David knew that even in the lowest of moments, God was still with him. 

Jesus, too, knows this feeling of being misunderstood. In our brief Gospel passage, we encounter Jesus at home, having just named the Twelve Apostles and working a few miracles, preparing to eat a meal. But as a crowd quickly forms, Jesus’ own family attempts to “restrain him,” as some translations say, because reports are going around that he is “out of his mind.” In the beginning of his ministry, fulfilling God’s will, Jesus encounters resistance and is radically misunderstood, even by his own family. But yet, as with David, we know that Jesus is assured of his Father’s presence with him and continues to fulfill his mission, ultimately to his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. 

As we continue on our journey between Epiphany and the season of Lent, may we always remember that God continues to reveal God’s self as Emmanuel, “God-with-us,” even when we feel most alone. It is this God, through the person of Jesus, who always “gets” us, even when others don’t. And this God not only promises to be present in our times of trouble, but, especially through his Word and sacraments, promises that he will never abandon us throughout our whole lives. God is with us! 

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