Rejection

Np one likes to be ignored or worse, rejected.  Jesus, who was acclaimed by the crowds after the Sermon on the Mount, was rejected by his hometown people in Nazareth.  It's a fact of life, that heroes, saints, are often misjudged and rejected.
John Marie Vianney, whose Memorial we observe today was nearly rejected by authorities in the seminary because he was such a poor student.  His education had been fragmented and inadequate on top of his slowness to learn, making him an unacceptable candidate for the priesthood.  Yet, when it came time for ordination, the bishop said, "We do not need learned priests, but holy ones."
With this obstacle overcome,, there began a 40 year term as pastor of the little church in Ars, a small town whose residents had drifted away from the faith.  When they saw his zeal, determination and austere lifestyle, they began to turn their lives around in imitation of him.  "We are no different from other people," they said, " but we live with a saint."  Rather than rejection, for him now it was recognition, reverence and acclamation as his reputation as a confessor spread throughout France.  In the summers he would spend 16 hours a day in the confessional, hearing over 300 confessions a day.
Even on his deathbed, he heard the confessions of penitents.
Being rejected might be a good sign that God is using the "weak, the unlearned, the humble," to do work that becomes seen as unmistakably his.
Bro. Rene