Gospel – John 15: 18-21
Jesus said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
The Gospel of the Lord
The Mass intention is for Malcolm Kendall RIP – Holy Cross
Reflection:
In today’s Gospel Jesus is very clear. Following him means also sharing his lot, being rejected and even hated by ‘the world’ because our values are different. This does not make the suffering of feeling different and not accepted any easier.
In the challenge of the Gospel today, Jesus helps us to make sense of it, by clarifying all that he has said so far about himself being the bread of life which brings eternal life to believers who receive him into their hearts and in doing our best to remain loyal to our calling to be followers of Jesus Christ.
- Jesus warns us that the world is going to hate us, and it does! Think of how he responded. “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing.”
