Nobility in Difficulty!

Thursday, September 10, 2026

1 Cor 8: 1b-7, 11-13; Lk 6: 27-38

Today’s Gospel invites us to discover the true nobility hidden under what is difficult. 

Being righteous and holy finds an interesting explanation in Jesus’ preaching. Jesus asks, ‘For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.’ In other words, we are called to examine what distinguishes Christians from the rest. 

The Christian understanding of righteousness is different and unique. It transcends the ordinary understanding by which we often define righteousness in terms of avoiding evil, observing rules, and protecting our own interests. On the contrary, Christian righteousness is not merely content with being good people, but it invites us to resemble God in our goodness. Anything less than this fails to meet the Christian idea of righteousness.

This is why, for Jesus, it is the difficult that makes the noble. Anyone can love those who love them. It is easy to be kind if we are sure our kindness will be returned. We can forgive those who sincerely apologize. But the real questions to ask are, ‘What happens when love is not reciprocated? What should we do when we are insulted or used by others?’ For Jesus, righteousness consists in doing for the sake of love what other people cannot imagine doing.

If we ask, ‘Is it possible at all?’ Jesus answers, ‘Love makes it possible.’ Hence, Jesus’ invitation to love our enemies is a call to embrace a new way of living as his disciples. Love changes the meaning of difficulty. What is imposed upon us is experienced as a burden. But what we freely embrace out of love becomes an offering. Love transforms the difficult into the noble. Thus, for a Christian, true mobility is buried under what the world often calls weird.

Let us pray for the courage to choose the path of love in order to discover true Christian nobility. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar