The Courage To Be Disliked

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 07 September 2026
1 Corinthians 5:1-8     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Luke 6:6-11

Long before that became
a bestseller,
you, O Lord Jesus
and the Saints who followed you
like St. Paul not only preached
but lived out that courage
to be disliked;
teach me this Monday to muster
enough courage to be disliked,
to be free to choose you,
to be free to be faithful and true
to your teachings the world had
always rejected
or circumvented
which many of us are so afraid
to stand by because they are
not popular;
teach us, O Lord,
to stretch out our hands
according to your instructions
and will, not minding what others
may say about us;
let us have 
the courage to do what is good
than what is sinful,
the courage to be kind than unkind,
the courage to be Christian
than be unChristian
not like some Corinthians 
who refused to make a stand 
against a prevailing immorality
among them.

Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough inasmuch as you are unleavened… Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Oh how I admire
and long to be like St. Paul,
Lord, filled with
courage and wisdom,
so free to be himself,
so free to be for you,
so free from pressures
of others;
throughout his life,
St. Paul had the courage
to be disliked even by
his fellow apostles
not just fellow Jews
because he was so convinced
of your love
and gospel,
Lord Jesus;
in this age of social media
where external pressures
like acceptance and popularity
are given more emphasis,
so many of us have become
so dependent on others' validations
of our actions and decisions
that leave us more lost,
alienated,
and so unfree
like that man with a
withered hand;
give me the humility,
Jesus to accept those
many parts in me
that are withered
and dry
that make me so afraid
to stand for you,
for what is true and good.
Amen.