If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
“There will come times when the truth and the Gospel will be regarded as a scandal”. - George Orwell
Jesus' words bring the disciples back to earth ... because they point to a fundamental truth: If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. Being a disciple of Christ will not be a continuous success story. It is also an attitude of hatred and hostility.
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 ". We are not from "this world". To follow Christ means to give up "this world". There is a diametrical difference between people from the world and believers in the way of seeing reality and its meaning. The boundary between these two worlds does not coincide with the division between those who belong to the Church and those who are outside of it. The boundary is between those whom the Lord Jesus chose and those who remained outside of Jesus. The choice is not only about those invited to the community of believers in the Church, but about the living experience of meeting Jesus, who is not only the Messiah, but also the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Real closeness in the meeting with Jesus is a threat to the world because it goes beyond the structures of the world, questioning their rule. The meeting with Christ leads to trusting, opening to the otherness of the other, and thus giving up all control. In this way, an insurmountable opposition arises between the worldly and what grows out of a living relationship with God.
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first." If someone hates you because you have hurt him/her, lied to him/her, humiliated him/her, etc., you are both children of this world - you because you have done great evil, he/she because he/she has succumbed to hatred. But it is a great honor to be hated because of belonging to Christ. On one condition: that you do not curse those who hate you but bless them and pray for them (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:14).
In some countries of the world, people are still persecuted because they believe in Christ. In democratic countries we encounter epithets, mockery, slander, isolation because we oppose the killing of old people and unborn children, that we defend the indissolubility of marriage and premarital chastity, that we do not approve of pornography and homosexual behavior. Even Christ was hated by the world for bearing witness to the Truth: “The world […] hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil” (cf. Jn 7: 7).
One more hatred worth noting. The hatred that the man of sin who dwells in me directs against the man of God who grows in me. The more I open myself to the light and power of grace, the weaker this man of sin will be in me. May he die together with his hatred.
Remember this word: No disciple is above his teacher.
Jesus is the Lord of the Church.
Jesus creates her.
Jesus gave her all the rules.
Jesus gave her the right means.
Jesus showed her a model of functioning.
Do not really think that you can come up with a better Church. First of all, do not think that you can find better means than Jesus' ones. Because this was what the Gospel was about, that we learn very easily from the world. And we borrow the means of action from the world. Meanwhile, Jesus chose us from the world: you do not belong to the world. (..)
Let the methods that Jesus puts in your hand be enough for you. Let the Word, the Eucharist and the Sacraments be enough for you. Let the testimony of a common life be enough for you. Let the testimony of LOVE be enough for you. Even when the world hates you - a testimony of love - not tit for tat, not blow for blow. Testimony of LOVE. Do not look for means that will be more effective in your thinking. You are taken from the world.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george