If you aren’t different because you follow Christ, you might not be following Him at all. While this sounds harsh, there must be something different about your life, because He is trying to lead you somewhere. To be part of Christ’s flock means that we know His voice, and we respond to it.
In today’s Gospel, we are reminded that He is leading all of us, and that we are meant to be united by hearing His voice. We all know that this isn’t how it always turns out. Many are divided over Christ’s teachings, and in fact divided by these teachings. Christ knew this all along:
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three…(Luke 12:51-52)
Not everyone will answer God calling them to be a part of Christ’s flock, the Church. However, we have the duty to show them something authentic by our own lives, modeling discipleship for them. For some, it will be part of their call to conform their lives to Christ, and for others we will just seem strange. This is not for us to worry about, for we can only point them toward Christ, we cannot change their hearts.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)
If we are to follow Christ, we must be prepared to be misunderstood, and also prepared to show others why we live our lives differently. While we will be misunderstood (because our lives should be different), we cannot let it end with this. We must love the person in front of us enough to give them the truth. And we must love them enough not to hit them over the head with it. If we play our role correctly, we will point them toward Christ, and He will do the real work.
St. Anthony Catholic Church 