The author of the Letter to the Hebrews exhorts us to strive for peace with everyone. Striving, of course, is distinct from actually successfully living at peace with everyone, and is an acknowledgment of the great challenge involved in doing so. For some, the challenge lies in dealing patiently and compassionately with the weaknesses, failings, and flaws of others. For others, somewhat paradoxically, it is the strengths, virtues, and gifts of one’s neighbor that interfere with peaceful coexistence. This is illustrated in today’s gospel where, despite acknowledging Christ’s wisdom and the mighty deeds wrought by his hands, the townsfolk take offense at him. Either way, each challenge tells us something about ourselves and where we need to grow and mature. Impatience and intolerance of the weaknesses and limitations of others betray a hardened heart and a prideful lack of compassion and awareness of one’s own flawed condition. Envious irritation and resentment at the strengths and virtues of a neighbor suggest a wounded, but still prideful heart, threatened by one whose holiness and wholeness exposes his/her immaturity and incompleteness. Whichever of these two challenges to being at peace with everyone is your lot, learn the lesson it imparts and with deeper self-knowledge embrace these unavoidable trials as discipline and the means to that holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.