Today’s Gospel challenges us to face rejection with prophetic courage and optimism. Very often our friends, families, or childhood companions fail to listen to us and refuse to accept the words of grace, love, and encouragement that we offer to them because they know so much about us and are so used to us that they disregard what we have to say, if they even hear it! But we have to face such rejection with a kind of prophetic courage because by virtue of our Baptism we are called to be prophets like Jesus, sharing his message of love and forgiveness and his mission. As so called prophets, our task is to speak the truth in love and oppose the evils in our society. We don’t condone or encourage sinful behavior even in our dear ones. We also don’t “excommunicate” them from our lives. But, as Jesus does, we continue to love them and pray for them.