I Wish You Discomfort

A friend sent an email this morning with an invitation to a Zoom talk. In it, he outlined the way the meeting would be structured. After this, he sent another email saying if anyone is uncomfortable with this, maybe we can do something different. Those are not his exact words, but they are the gist. I responded, "If this is the way you want to run the meeting, then we should do it whether people are uncomfortable or not." I wanted to say, "I don't care if they're uncomfortable; this is how we're doing it," but I didn't."

We are focused on making people comfortable, doing what feels good instead of doing what is right. We see the mess the world is in, but we do not connect these two things. Or at least most people don't but I do by God's grace. And so I feel I need to push back against that idea and those around me who act upon it.

I am living in discomfort. Living with Brian, my housemate is very difficult for me. I sometimes have confused feelings for him, hatred for him, and a desire to push him away and pull him closer at the same time. All of this brings me discomfort. I want to run away from it, but I don't because I know it is necessary. I know the same is true for others.

I will not do what makes people comfortable. I will not put on a mask because it makes you comfortable. I will not put on regular clothes, I wear all black or brown, or hide my crucifix because it makes you comfortable. I will not deny the fact that homosexual attraction and activity are harmful physically, emotionally, and spiritually and are bad for both those who live it and society. I will not follow the line that everything that is wrong with our country is due to racism. I will not go along with the lie that the Crusades and the Inquisition were evil. I will not go along just to make people comfortable.

This is not love! Jesus did not make people comfortable. He said things that made people very uncomfortable, to the point of being killed. This is Who we are to be modeling ourselves off of. I do not deny that in my desire to help others, I sometimes veer off into being too harsh and sometimes maybe even cruel, but that is not my intention. Intentions matter, though they are not all that matters.

If I love someone, I will tell them the truth even if they don't like me or want to be around me. I think it is vital in the world we live in now because people don't hear the truth anymore and are stuck in the slavery of whatever feeling they have taken on as truth. Our job as Catholics is to gently shake people out of this sleep. The Church does not do this for the most part anymore nor do many of it's priests and bishops, deacons, or laity. I do not believe I am called to silence in these matters. I do not think I am called to conformity. I believe, as Pope Benedict said, that I am called to greatness. And part of that greatness is offering to bring others along with me. And the only way to bring them along, in many cases, is through discomfort.

So, Lord, help me make people uncomfortable, not in a worldly way but in Jesus' way. I ask this through Christ our Lord, amen.

Witten Feb, 2021

Human-written, AI spell-checked

Image from Gerd Altmann at Pixaby.com