How disconcerting we find it when we need to tell another something of great importance and that person is clearly not listening! Their lack of response is hurtful and we experience personal rejection. Often we decide never again to confide anything of importance to that person.
Not so with Jesus. The most important concern of his ministry was to help others to grow in new life and to accomplish this he had to suffer and die. The disciples don’t want to hear about. Jesus does not give up on them! Rather, he teaches them what he really is about. In his persistence, Jesus chose to die to self, become servant of all and continue to lead others to new understanding and new life.
Jesus persists in teaching us with the same intensity. We hear his Word proclaimed, see his goodness in others. We take up our cross to follow him.
In all of this, we are called to be persistent in dying to self for the good of the other.
