Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for - Sunday, October 26, 2025

In this weekend’s Gospel, Jesus tries to explain that having a difficult personality is not the way that God would like us to be.  As I write this, I am just about to begin a retreat at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago.  Before that I was in New York to visit my dad and to celebrate the wedding of my best friend’s son.  Whenever I visit New York, I’m reminded that it is filled with difficult people who are critical, judgmental, impatient, vocal, and who have firm opinions about EVERYTHING.    

Jesus tells the Pharisees a parable about a Pharisee. The Pharisee in the parable has an extremely high opinion of himself and a correspondingly low opinion of others.  Jesus is not so subtly telling all the Pharisees that their opinions of themselves are too high.  However, I’m guessing that the Pharisees to whom He was speaking missed the very clear message that he was trying to send them.  They didn’t see themselves in the parable.  Like all difficult people, they have no self-awareness.  In their arrogance, they do not even realize that they are difficult people! 

Difficult people know exactly how things “ought to be.”  They tend to make everything about themselves and their ideas.  They can also be aggressive in pushing their “superior” plan for those around them.  In conversations, they tend to talk down to people and can even be rude and hostile.  They ignore reasonable boundaries and good manners.

Sadly, we can’t “fix” difficult people and we aren’t able to avoid them.  However, we can choose how we respond to them.  We can avoid dealing with them in the same manner that they act toward others. In his letter to Timothy, St. Paul recommends an approach centered on humility.  Paul explains that he humbly accepted the attacks of difficult people, including persecution and prison, and was “poured out like a libation” for the Lord.  He accepted humiliation and pain because he fully trusted that, if he remained true to the Lord, the Lord would bring him “safe to His heavenly kingdom.”

Most difficult people will assume that this message doesn’t apply to them, so they won’t change. That’s OK.  Respond to them with humility, patience, kindness, and self-control. Extend the same love, grace, and mercy that God extends, and pray that you may never become “difficult!”

Fr. Mike