Wednesday of the
Seventh Week of Easter
(Acts 20:28-38; John 17:11-19)
The world for the Gospel of John, as for most of us, is a fashion
show of iniquity. Violence, stupidity,
and greed show themselves in progression.
Although Jesus can say, “God so loved the world that He gave his only
Son...,” it remains a place of temptation seeking to destroy the soul. For this reason, Jesus says in today’s
reading, “I do not belong to the world.”
The ambivalence goes back to the Genesis where God created the world as
good only to see it compromised when the woman and her husband consider
themselves as so good that they are equal to God.
Now Jesus is reversing the trend. He does not want the world’s mire to pollute
his disciples. He gives them the truth
of God’s love. By self-sacrifice for the
good of one another they will overcome the world’s tendencies to
self-promotion. Jesus has shown them the
way. Soon they will follow. Their love for him will take them to far away
places to preach his name. They will not
be ensnared by the world’s seamier side because Jesus prays for them in the
gospel today.
His prayer protects us as well. There is no point in trying to flee the
world. As long as we have bodies, the
world will be part of us. In fact, we
have a mission in the world as surely as the apostles in Acts. We too have to give witness to God’s love for
the world by selfless love.
