Reflection
It will not be an infrequent occurrence that people will look at us as fools who are wasting their lives and their time. Part of Christlikeness is to accept the ridicule which Christ accepted, to be willing to live as fools for Christ’s sake. In his letter to the Corinthian church Paul spends a great deal of time explaining that the wisdom of God is perceived as foolishness by the world. In fact, Paul says, the gospel is not naturally palatable to the world. It is truly a battle of spiritual power. If we start standing for truth, even professed believers might start to despise us. Living the words of the truth of the gospel along with prayer is what is sustaining as we go through life. We don’t know who will respond because, if Christ was willing to be regarded as a fool, so, too, must we.
Brent Barnett
Prayer
Make me humble. O Lord, and enable me to accept being seen as foolish for
Living the gospel.
Action
Are there times when I remain silent or “go along” in order not to be regarded as naïve or foolish? How can I have the courage to speak my beliefs?
Suggested Reading
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Proverbs 21:30
For love, we must be fools for God.
Pope Francis
Become a fool that you may become wise — a thoughtful, hopeful, happy fool for Christ.
John Piper
In the struggle against evil, there is no shame in defeat — only in not fighting.
Steven Hart
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.
Confucius
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. Unknown
He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.
James Gibbons Huneker
Devout Christians are destined to be regarded as fools in modern society. We are fools for Christ’s sake. We must pray for courage to endure the scorn of the sophisticated world.
Anton Scalia
Few of us Christians can bear the notion of really being thought a fool by this world and so we desperately strive to fit in.
Msgr. Charles Pope