“And into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into the house, salute it, saying: ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if that house be worthy, your peace shall come upon it; but if it be not worthy, your peace shall return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet. Amen I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”
While you are commanded to love all with equal love, realize that not every heart will be open to you: “And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces: when I taught them early in the morning, and instructed them, and they would not hearken to receive instruction” (Jeremias 32:33). Finding one that opens the door to the Gospel, and with whom you can feast on love, wisdom, and truth is a great gift: “Every beast loveth its like: so also every man him that is nearest to himself” (Ecclesiasticus 13:19). Furthermore, by your Christian vocation you are called in a sense to be a prophet, or an expositor of the sacred mysteries, and not all heed the sayings of prophets: “Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord: which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord” (Jeremias 29:19). Rather, Theophila, “Be continually with a holy man, whomsoever thou shalt know to observe the fear of God” (Ecclesiasticus 37:15), for St. Paul exhorts: “If all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or an unlearned person, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. The secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will adore God, affirming that God is among you indeed” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). Going into any interaction, be it with the faithful and with those who are outside the faith, pray for their peace, or even boldly wish it to them outwardly as did St. Francis, that their hearts may be softened, and your words may flow like balm and be received by good soil: “I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm” (Ecclesiasticus 24:21); “the tongue of the wise is health” (Proverbs 12:18). The peace of a heart loved will descend on those that receive divine love, but Jesus consoles seemingly fruitless labor by saying that nothing is lost with God, and the rejection of God’s love by others in no way harms the love between you and Him: “We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6). Now, this can cause a wound of compassion, for you see that their hard heart keeps them far from knowing how loved they are: “Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18), but it does not disrupt the love story between you and God. Or this can be an instruction to have a peaceful countenance and a peaceful disposition towards all, for a gentle, calming face makes the heart agreeable, with a loving word that follows being sweet honey for the open mouth of the soul: “His eyes as doves upon brooks of waters, which are washed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams… His lips are as lilies dropping choice myrrh” (Canticle 5:12-13); “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 80:11). If someone outright does not welcome the divine love expressed through you, Jesus instructs to “shake off the dust from your feet,” because He sees the labor you put into loving Him, knowing Him, and serving Him: “That thou mayest open thy eyes upon this house day and night, upon the place wherein thou hast promised that thy name should be called upon” (2 Paralipomenon 6:20), and in descending from the sweet mountain of contemplation to attend to the hearts of others, you dust your feet with earthly cares: “They are of the world: therefore of the world they speak” (1 John 4:5). To “dust off your feet” then means to shake off the earthly things you hear: “When thou hearest those things, see as it were in sleep, and thou shalt awake” (Ecclesiasticus 13:17) by returning to the Lord in prayer, letting your feet be washed by His presence and words: “After that, he putteth water into a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded” (John 13:5), for by filling your mind with Jesus, all else melts away into the background. As for those that do not hear, Sodom and Gomorrah were overcome with bad love, consumed with lust and passion: “And they called Lot, and said to him: ‘Where are the men that came in to thee at night? Bring them out hither that we may know them’” (Genesis 19:5), but did not have divine love expressed to them: “That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). There is a greater gravity, then, in hearing about the unfathomable love of God and still choosing lesser goods: “For all that is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23), particularly with outright rejection of this love: “How can I be merciful to thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot’s house” (Jeremias 5:7). Therefore, you are called to “let thy thoughts be upon the precepts of God, and meditate continually on his commandments: and he will give thee a heart, and the desire of wisdom shall be given to thee” (Ecclesiasticus 6:37), realizing that when you bring the fruits of your contemplation to others and they do not receive them, you are not injured, but have extended your love as you could, which is enough.