May 8, 2010
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
“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
Dear Lord, help me to be strong and faithful when the day comes for me to learn that the world hates you and those who believe in you. The friendship and intimacy you offer me does not belong to this world. It is not based on competition, rivalry, success, jealousy, and suspicion. It is not acquired by manipulation or extortion. Your love and goodness are free gifts coming from the abundance of your heart. Your peace and joy are like streams flowing freely from your innermost self to your people. But the world in which I live has other ways and other rules, and it responds to you and your abundant love with hatred and persecution.
I do not know if I am ready for that. I am weak, fearful, and easily in doubt. But I trust you will be at my side and will give me the words when the hour comes to witness for your live. As for now, O Lord, deepen my knowledge of your love. Amen.
(“Saturday, May 19” in A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee by Henri J.M. Nouwen. New York: Image Books. 1981.)
Study
What is it about the love song of Jesus that riles up the world so much?
The picture Jesus paints of how the world will react to him and to the disciples is not pretty. You might be left scratching your head wondering “THIS is the world that God loved so much that he sent his only Son to save it?!!?” This hostile world hates Jesus and the disciples who follow Him.
The warning about how the world will react to the message of Jesus – a message of love – also is predicted in other Gospels.
“But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues.” Matthew 10:18
Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. Matthew 24:9
To avoid being drawn along in the world, the solution Jesus suggests is to become separate from the world. This separation – this counter cultural reaction to the world – is where and why the hatred seeds grow.
Union with the world implies love. Separation from the world results in fidelity to God but hostility from the world.
Jesus tells it the way it is. However, in doing so, he does not judge the world or condemn it because He is here to save the world and us from ourselves and our self-destructive/world-destructive behavior.
Action
Many religious communities separate themselves from the world. The women and men who belong to these orders live cloistered lives of prayer, study and love that support us in our daily work.
The rest of us who do not live behind the walls of a monastery or convent face the reality of the world every day as the final dismissal and blessing from Mass echoes in our lives.
Go in peace to love and serve the world. No matter how the world reacts to what we do, what we say or what we believe, we are commanded at every Mass every day to love and serve the hostile world just like Jesus loved and served those who were his own in the world.
Watch the people drive right past the protestors standing vigil outside an abortion clinic. Watch the people walk right into work past anti-war protestors. Watch the people walk past the victims of sexual abuse protesting outside the bishop’s house. No matter how the Church witnesses for a consistent ethic of life, the message often falls on deaf ears. But just because the people do not have ears to hear does not mean we should stop speaking, acting or believing.
