Saturday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 8, 2021

John 15:18-21

Jesus said to his disciples: “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. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass continues the pattern of readings taken from the Gospel of St. John, especially from the chapters containing the Lord’s words to the Apostles at the Last Supper.  He has spoken of his love for them and of their need to love each other.  Now the Lord speaks of the world’s hatred for him and, consequently, for them.  The first line of this reading would be better translated as: “If the world hates you, realize that it has hated me before you.”  The tense of the second verb is that of the perfect, meaning an action begun in the past and continuing in its effect into the present.  The lectionary translation “hated” puts the verb in the simple past tense, meaning an action that occurred in the past and was completed.  Jesus is saying that the world has been hating him from some point in the past and that this hatred continues into the present.  He contrasts this with the situation of the Apostles: it is hating them only from the present.  He is telling them that they will be hated with the same persistence with which he has been hated.  The Lord explains: “If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own.”  The Greek literally says “if you were of the world”, meaning “belonging” in the sense of family, tribe, or nation.  “But because you are not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.”  The world hates the Apostles for two reasons: they are not “of” it, and the Lord has chosen them “out of” it.  They are not of the world because they believe in Jesus and are committed to the way of life he teaches; and he has chosen them “out of” it, so that the world cannot even potentially have them.  We can think of this for ourselves as being baptized, and then living the life of faith to which the baptized are called.  We are first rescued from the jaws of the monster, and then led out from the cave in which it dwells.  

We might consider a little this “love and hate” language that Jesus uses here.  Traditionally, these terms had to do with obedience.  A subject who refused to give the king something he wanted, “hated” him — regardless of the subject’s actual feelings for the king.  Likewise, a subject who gave the king what he wanted, “loved” him, again, feelings notwithstanding.  We can see through this something of what Jesus meant.  “The world hates you . . . because you are not of the world”: by turning one’s back on such things as compel a person to think only of this short present existence: ambition, envy, anger, lust, and so on.  In this way we distinguish ourselves from others and often others will compare themselves to us — a typical worldly reaction: What does this other person have that I do not, and how can I get it for myself or ruin it for him?  The worldly person may feel the sting of conscience in making this assessment and cry out that the Christian is “judging” him, even if the Christian is going about his business and has not noticed the other.  It is a short step from here to outright persecution.  A person committed to the world does not dare allow to exist even a reminder that there is a greater world beyond this one: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  The Apostles have witnessed how the leaders of the Jews attempted to kill Jesus already, and were persecuting him to the point that St. John calls some of his followers “secret, for fear of the Jews” (cf. John 19, 38).  Now the Lord lays it out plain before them that they will be persecuted just as severely and persistently as he.

“And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.”  That is, the leaders of the Jews will persecute you because, appearances to the contrary, they do not believe in God.  The Lord’s words here very significantly tell his believers then and now not to be shaken by persecution or by who their persecutors are.  The Jewish Christians for whom John was writing his Gospel knew themselves to be the true Jews.  The fact that the Jewish leaders — their own brethren — were set on hunting them down even to death shook the faith of some.  Jesus teaches that indeed the Jewish Christians were not “of” the Jews who refused to believe in him, anymore than the Lord himself was.  In another place, Jesus foretells that, “Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death” (Matthew 10, 21).

By believing in Jesus and living the way of life he taught, we are saved from the jaws of death.  We are chosen by him, and so we are “of him”, and not of the world.  Getting off the “fast track” of this world allows us to get on the path to heaven, our true home.