The world hates you

At 16,1-1 0; Ps 99; Jn 15,18-21
25 MAY

The world is governed by the prince of evil, by the one who has been a liar from the beginning. Slave of darkness, he hates the light and does everything to extinguish it. On earth, since the light is brought by the friends of God, he will always fight them to the point of killing them. The Book of Wisdom offers us a clear vision of the struggle that will end only with the Parousia.

They who said among themselves, thinking not aright: “Brief and troublous is our lifetime; neither is there any remedy for man’s dying, nor is anyone known to have come back from the nether world. For haphazard were we born, and hereafter we shall be as though we had not been; Because the breath in our nostrils is a smoke and reason is a spark at the beating of our hearts, And when this is quenched, our body will be ashes and our spirit will be poured abroad like unresisting air. Even our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will recall our deeds. So our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and will be dispersed like a mist pursued by the sun’s rays and overpowered by its heat. For our lifetime is the passing of a shadow; and our dying cannot be deferred because it is fixed with a seal; and no one returns. Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are real, and use the freshness of creation avidly. Let us have our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no springtime blossom pass us by; let us crown ourselves with rosebuds ere they wither. Let no meadow be free from our wantonness; everywhere let us leave tokens of our rejoicing, for this our portion is, and this our lot. Let us oppress the needy just man; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the old man for his hair grown white with time.

But let our strength be our norm of justice; for weakness proves itself useless. Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the Lord. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, Because his life is not like other men’s, and different are his ways. He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him” (Wis 2,1-20).

The dynamics of hatred and persecution without reason, deprived of any motive, must be found in impiety, idolatry and immorality. Whoever abandons himself to sin comes out of the influence of the Holy Spirit and falls into the slavery of the prince of the world. He unleashes all his anger against those who want to destroy his kingdom. His goal is only one: breaking down, annihilating and killing the carriers of light. But he does not know that it is precisely in this destruction that the kingdom of God is built up and strengthened, grows and produces fruits of eternal life, on condition that the bearer of light gives the world of darkness only the body, never the spirit and never the soul that must always be of the Lord.

“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

Christ Jesus is not only a bearer of light. He is the true light that comes to enlighten every man. Satan has armed his entire army against him, placing himself in command of it. The special corps of this army were then scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, chief priests and elders of the people. Even Pilate was forced to be an instrument of death against the true Light. Jesus, the true Light, the Just and the Holy, handed his body over to the prince of the world and for this sacrifice he obtained redemption, salvation and eternal life for the whole of humanity. If Christ Jesus was crucified, might there be esteem or respect for his disciples?

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, give us the strength to offer our life for salvation.