When Your Own Town Throws You Off the Cliff

Imagine a young woman, no more than twenty, standing in a Roman courtroom because the guards had taken her from her home. They forced her to stand before the governor. He is powerful. He is ruthless. He sneers at her defiance. He demands, “Deny Christ.” He tells her, “Marry me and you will live a comfortable life. Deny me, and you will suffer well beyond your imagination.”

She does not waver. She does not plead. She simply answers, “I belong to Christ alone.”

What follows is brutality. It is unspeakable. I am not going to describe it here. It is terrible. Yet through it all she does not break. Her faith, stronger than her body, refuses to be conquered.

I am very confident that I have not even the smallest fraction of the courage and capacity to give such a witness as St. Agatha. The Church celebrates her on her feast day. She is one of the few people named in the Eucharistic Prayer. If I ever have even a small amount of courage like that, it will only be because God gave me the grace to muster it.

We honor her undying commitment to live a life for Christ. In reality, that is what we are all supposed to do. Today and every day.

In Luke chapter 4, in the story of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, the Gospel lines up with her life in more than one way. Jesus reads from the Scriptures and then tells those present that they have just heard those Scriptures fulfilled. The people of his own town force him to a cliff with the intent to throw him over the edge.

We see the same thing in both scenes: Jesus teaching in Nazareth, and St. Agatha standing in a Roman court. Faith is often rejected by the world. Jesus was rejected by his hometown. St. Agatha’s faith was rejected by the leaders of her town. Faith is typically tested, and it is often tested by those closest to us.

Both were rejected in their hometown. In the moment that can feel like complete failure. If we could travel through time and watch the events as they happened, it would look pretty bad for both of them. God’s work does not stop with rejection. We have to look through this age and into eternity before we can see how God wins when we stick with Jesus in the very hard times.

Faith requires courage. We are all called to adhere to Jesus and to refuse the call from those around us to deny him. Any courage we have is a gift from God.

If your stand was rejected by the people closest to you, start by telling the truth about the hour you are in. It can look like failure. You do not have to call it a success in order to stay. Write down what actually happened: who asked you to back away, and what you said. That is enough for the first day.

The next step is the one already in this homily. Ask for the courage you do not have. “Lord, I do not have this. Give me enough to stay.” Waiting until you feel brave is how the hour gets lost. Courage like hers is a gift. You do not have to manufacture it first.

If the people who rejected you are family, church, or a hometown that used to feel like home, do not try to convince them before nightfall. Stay with what you know is true. You can be kind without handing them the denial they asked for. You can also leave a situation that is trying to harm you. Leaving is not the same as denying Christ.

When the day is over and it still looks like you lost, do not close the story. Nazareth looked like a loss. The Roman court looked like a loss. Those hours were not the whole story. You will not see the rest of it from inside that hour. The work for this week is to stay, to ask for help, and to refuse the deal that says comfort is available if you will only take back the sentence you meant.

This is a pastoral reflection, not clinical care and not a substitute for it. If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call 988 or local emergency services.

Drawn from a homily first preached in 2025.