Out of the World

April 26, 2008

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

During (the) night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. Acts 16:9-10

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.” John 15:18-19

Piety

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness. Mother Teresa

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/042608.shtml

We are known by the company we keep. We advertise that to the world in many ways. The brands we buy, the clothes we wear, the stickers on our bumpers, the messages on our t-shirts, the clubs we join.

Through our lives, those affiliations change. Maybe in school we were on sports teams, scouting, in the band, in drama club, the newspaper or yearbook. By college, fraternities and sororities, campus ministry, and more vied for our attention and action.

As adults, there are PTO/PTA, volunteer fire and rescue squads, professional associations, the auto club, the AARP, American Express and more.

We join for what we get. Discount hotel rooms, travel benefits, access to entertainment. The details are right there in the membership brochures that fill our mailboxes daily.

But that’s not the way of the church. Our membership in the church does not change over time. As Marty Merlo wrote in a reflection on the Beatitudes that echoes today’s scripture:

We are called to be Catholic. To live our faith in Jesus Christ is a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year proposition. You do not take a vacation from being Catholic. You cannot take a vacation from being you. Anywhere you go, anytime that you are anywhere, you are still you, and you cannot ever get away from that. But you are a member of Jesus Christ. You are baptized into Jesus Christ and you are called to live the life of Jesus Christ, so no matter where you are and no matter what time it is you are a Catholic. It is not a one-hour a week thing. It is not even something that we can say, “Okay, I’ll have a little time for prayer everyday.” It is every minute of every hour of every day that we have to live this life.

Sometimes the Church calls on us to go places where we would rather not go, to do things we would rather not do. Paul wanted to head into Bithynia in today’s first reading but the Holy Spirit would not let him. The plan was to send him to Macedonia. So Paul was given a vision and then he followed that vision where the Church wanted him to go.

Jesus prepared us for this situation when he taught us to pray: “Our Father in heaven, holy be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will, not mine, be done.”

Jesus doesn’t say that the world might hate us or act this way. He tells us that it will act this way. He doesn’t say that it will be easy. He only promises that it will be worth it.

So, let’s get ready to rumble with the world for the Lord.

Action

Where does the Church want you to go? What does the Church want you to do?

Jesus has warned us that the answers to those questions will not be popular. Indeed, we can expect to be hurt. Indeed we should expect to be hated and persecuted. That is certainly not like the marketing brochures we get from all the vacation properties, automobile dealers and others who try to separate us from our hard-earned dollars.

Think back to the ways you have been hurt by the way others lived, what they said, or what they did. Think forward to the ways that other people (even those who are far away) might be hurt by our gas-guzzling lifestyle, the gossipying things we say and the selfish actions we take. If we heed John 15:18-19, how might our words and deeds change?

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.” John 15:18-19