May 20, 2025 Written by 

The imbalance of love and the hatred from that world there

(Jn 15:18-21)

 

In the preceding section, Jesus denotes the character of love between Him and the disciples, and mutual love between believers. Now he introduces the contrast with the world: the opposite of love.

In Jn the term «world» designates the sin structure resulting from the combination of religion-power-interest.

A kingdom that organises itself from ambitious individuals and interests consortia.

From the earliest times, the wrong-side, the opposite road, became constitutive of the «sons». In this way, the configuration of the kingdom was becoming alternative thing; a reversal.

The well-established and praised models did not distract sisters and brothers of Faith. The new assemblies educated everyone to gain confidence in personal Vocation.

Their experience, even mystical one, had another criterion compared to hosannas and leashed quietism.

In the fourth Gospel the ‘Church’ [Jn never uses the specific term, Εκκλησία] is in watermark the opposite of the «world».

The worldly spirit of official religiosity already hated the very friends whom Christ had drawn «from» those polluted waters:

«If you were from the world [...] For you are not from the world, but I have chosen you from the world, therefore the world hates you» (v.19).

 

The first experience of the Johannine communities in Asia Minor was persecution.

In event after event, the oppression suffered became normal for the believer ones, because that world there loved only "its" followers: «the world would love its own» (v.19), i.e. that and those in whom it recognizes itself.

Instead, by their living Faith, the friends of Christ remained 'intimate'; strangers to every apparatus.

In their choices and conduct, they reflected a unique convivial lifestyle - humanizing far more than any normal, servile beliefs.

With their action derived from inner strength alone, they prefigured a germ of non-conformist society. This, in comparison to the ideology of power - and its having-appearing.

In such a way, the Lord's brethren bore witness against «the sin of the world» (cf. John 1:29) just as the Lamb of God had done.

Although doomed for defeat, the true believers operated in an eccentric manner; never obsequious.

The detachment was with the official devotional structures, always deferential, cowardly; well disposed to the sacralization of established roles.

 

In short, the disciples of all times «know» the Son and the Father; the world ignores and disowns them (v.21).

So «There is no greater servant than his Lord» (v.20).

Believers drink from the same Chalice [cup], proclaim the same truths: they cannot have a better fate.

The intensification of evil-against is inevitable.

«All these things shall they do against you because of my Name» (v.21).

Jesus lived amidst denunciations, contrasts, animosities, persecutions, and died as a punished and reduced to shame rebel.

This is the reality of the «Name».

What can be expected differently from the heirs of his Word, from the bearers of the same Appeal that led the Master to be destroyed by the official authorities?

Yet the simple people of the earth have never rejected Him.

And now more than ever it is necessary for the vital germ of that calm and dramatic testimony to continue.

 

 

[Saturday 5th wk. in Easter, May 24, 2025]

753 Last modified on Saturday, 24 May 2025 12:00
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

May we obtain this gift [the full unity of all believers in Christ] through the Apostles Peter and Paul, who are remembered by the Church of Rome on this day that commemorates their martyrdom and therefore their birth to life in God. For the sake of the Gospel they accepted suffering and death, and became sharers in the Lord's Resurrection […] Today the Church again proclaims their faith. It is our faith (Pope John Paul II)
Ci ottengano questo dono [la piena unità di tutti i credenti in Cristo] gli Apostoli Pietro e Paolo, che la Chiesa di Roma ricorda in questo giorno, nel quale si fa memoria del loro martirio, e perciò della loro nascita alla vita in Dio. Per il Vangelo essi hanno accettato di soffrire e di morire e sono diventati partecipi della risurrezione del Signore […] Oggi la Chiesa proclama nuovamente la loro fede. E' la nostra fede (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
Family is the heart of the Church. May an act of particular entrustment to the heart of the Mother of God be lifted up from this heart today (John Paul II)
La famiglia è il cuore della Chiesa. Si innalzi oggi da questo cuore un atto di particolare affidamento al cuore della Genitrice di Dio (Giovanni Paolo II)
The liturgy interprets for us the language of Jesus’ heart, which tells us above all that God is the shepherd (Pope Benedict)
La liturgia interpreta per noi il linguaggio del cuore di Gesù, che parla soprattutto di Dio quale pastore (Papa Benedetto)
In the heart of every man there is the desire for a house [...] My friends, this brings about a question: “How do we build this house?” (Pope Benedict)
Nel cuore di ogni uomo c'è il desiderio di una casa [...] Amici miei, una domanda si impone: "Come costruire questa casa?" (Papa Benedetto)
Try to understand the guise such false prophets can assume. They can appear as “snake charmers”, who manipulate human emotions in order to enslave others and lead them where they would have them go (Pope Francis)
Chiediamoci: quali forme assumono i falsi profeti? Essi sono come “incantatori di serpenti”, ossia approfittano delle emozioni umane per rendere schiave le persone e portarle dove vogliono loro (Papa Francesco)
Every time we open ourselves to God's call, we prepare, like John, the way of the Lord among men (John Paul II)
Tutte le volte che ci apriamo alla chiamata di Dio, prepariamo, come Giovanni, la via del Signore tra gli uomini (Giovanni Paolo II)
Paolo VI stated that the world today is suffering above all from a lack of brotherhood: “Human society is sorely ill. The cause is not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations” (Pope Benedict)
Paolo VI affermava che il mondo soffre oggi soprattutto di una mancanza di fraternità: «Il mondo è malato. Il suo male risiede meno nella dilapidazione delle risorse o nel loro accaparramento da parte di alcuni, che nella mancanza di fraternità tra gli uomini e tra i popoli» (Papa Benedetto)
Dear friends, this is the perpetual and living heritage that Jesus has bequeathed to us in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood. It is an inheritance that demands to be constantly rethought and relived so that, as venerable Pope Paul VI said, its "inexhaustible effectiveness may be impressed upon all the days of our mortal life" (Pope Benedict)

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