This Week in Catholic Liturgy: Reason For Hope

St. Peter exhorts us to be ready to back up our hope in Christ with clear and compelling words, with "gentleness and reverence" so as not to be misinterpreted as axe-grinders or holiers-than-thou.  Of course, we may be misinterpreted anyway, and to a great extent that is beyond our control, just as it was beyond Christ's.  Defamation reveals more about the defamers than the defamed.