Reflection on Today's Readings, Saturday of 5th Week of Easter, Year B, May 8th, 2021
Texts: Acts 16:1-10; Ps. 100:1-3.5; John 15: 18-21
Today Jesus Christ invites us to see our destiny in Himself. Hence, He says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." The disposition of the world towards Jesus Christ is also our lot. However, we have nothing to fear, for as Jesus has conquered so also we shall conquer. Though we shall conquer if only we fight under His banner: we are to have faith in Him and live by His rules and regulations. St. John, in his letter, says, "for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith" (1John 4:5).
He continues by telling us why the world hates us. He says, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own". The world hates us because we do not belong it. We are in the World and yet not to be possessed by the world. There is contrast between us and the world. While the World tends towards decay, we tend towards immortality; the world is inclined to corruption but we are inclined to incorruption; the World is journeying to the end but we are journeying to the eternity; the World is folding up but we are unfolding. The World speaks of finitude to us but we must hope for eternity in the midst of finitude. The World claims to be real but we say it is an illusion. The World teaches us to glorify ourselves but we glorify God. The World wants to possess us but we turn it down. We are different from the World; our destiny is different from its destiny but we live in it. We live to be set free from it. The World hates us because our ways of life stands against its ways; by our life we condemn it.
We do not belong to the World because we follow Christ, who does not belong to the world. He says, "I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you". Because He chose us we follow His rules and regulations, not that of the World.
Today's first reading calls us to be good. We are given the example of Timothy. We are to live good life, that people can speak well of us. The reading also tells us that the World rejects the word of salvation spoken to it. The World do not want to hear the word of salvation at all. It is said, "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." As the world hates us and rejects the word of salvation, the children of God love us and welcome the word of salvation. It is said, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing pleading with him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." The World may hates us, the children of God love us.
Lord Jesus, grant us the grace to bear the challenges of our life in you. Amen.
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
