The Danger of Wanting to Be “Liked”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There’s a strange temptation many of us carry without realising it: we want to follow Jesus… but we also want everyone to like us. And the Gospel today forces us to confront something uncomfortable. Jesus says: “If the world hates you, realise that it hated me first.”

Jesus is speaking to His disciples right before His Passion. He knows what is coming. Rejection. Mockery. Abandonment. The Cross. And instead of telling them, “Don’t worry, everyone will understand you,” He says the opposite. “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Why? Because holiness challenges comfort. Truth exposes darkness. A life genuinely centered on Christ becomes a mirror, and not everyone wants to look into that mirror.

Many Christians today are not afraid of sin as much as they are afraid of being disliked. But Jesus never promised popularity. He promised purpose. And there is a huge difference. The saints understood this. None of them changed the Gospel to make the world comfortable. They loved the world deeply, but they refused to belong to it completely.

And every one of us knows what it feels like to want approval. We want people to understand us. We want acceptance. That’s human. But if your identity depends on applause, eventually you’ll compromise truth just to keep the applause going. That’s why Jesus reminds His disciples: “You do not belong to the world.” In other words: your value does not come from the world’s approval. Think about that. The same crowd that praises you today can reject you tomorrow. Public opinion changes constantly. But the love of God does not. And maybe the hardest kind of persecution today is not physical suffering. Maybe it’s the slow pressure to stay quiet about Jesus. To make faith private. To live as “Catholic enough” for Sunday, but not enough to inconvenience Monday.

Jesus did not die on a Cross so we could blend in comfortably with a world starving for hope. The Gospel becomes powerful when Christians stop asking, “Will this make me accepted?” and start asking, “Will this make me faithful?”

And here’s the beautiful thing: Jesus never asks us to suffer alone. Before He speaks about persecution, He speaks about friendship. About abiding in Him. About love. Meaning this: the Christian who knows he is loved by Christ can survive rejection from the world. Because when you know Who you belong to, you stop panicking over who misunderstands you.

Prayer: Jesus, give me the courage to follow You completely, even when it costs me comfort, approval, or acceptance. Teach me not to hide my faith out of fear, but to live with quiet confidence and real love. When I am tempted to belong to the world more than to You, remind me who I truly am. Help me to remain faithful, humble, and brave. Amen.

– Homily by Rev Fr Patrick Agbeko