Find a short reflection on the Gospel for Saturday of the fifth week of Easter, below.
When St John writes his Gospel these prophesies of Jesus have and are taking place. St Peter and St Paul have already been martyred amongst many others. The emperor Nero’s reign of terror against the Christians has passed but has been replaced by other emperors who have a similar hatred for the Christians. The Christians have long been expelled from the Synagogues by the Jews.
Jesus has already made it very clear to those considering being his followers, take up your cross. The shadow of the cross will never be too far from your life. Jesus will never disguise or conceal the reality of what we are to expect when we raise our heads above the parapet and live the teachings of Christ without compromise.
Today in our Gospel passage Jesus cautions us against the hostility and persecution and even hatred that we will encounter. It does not stop with Jesus. It is here to stay and not some passing peculiarity. For some throughout history it was a brutal and ferocious persecution, for others apersecution through discrimination, for others throughfictitious, misleading and unfounded agendas to undermine their Christian credibility.
The world is never favourable to those whose lives contradict their very mantra and as a consequence an examination of their conscience is provoked. It takes courage to be different, to be living the teachings of Christ which are at variance with the artificial world, that deludes itself, that it is doing just fine without God.
Jesus tells us that we cannot be pleasing to God and to the world, as we cannot belong to both. Yes, we live in the world but we are not called to be of the world as Jesus’s choice withdrew us from that illusion of being our own God and master. The antagonism that followed Jesus will also follow those who publicly submit to his kingdom and reject the mythical paradise of this world, that has an end and no eternity.
“If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
– St Augustine of Hippo
“The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”
– St Augustine of Hippo
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