FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
4 MAY 2024 EASTER SATURDAY 5
Jesus said to his disciples: “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.” (John 15: 18-21)
How shall I live this Word? 
Those who love are hated. What happened to Jesus will also happen to His disciples. This is the way it is. The world is opposed to those who do good and want the good, and we know that ‘world’ in the Gospel of John, is not so much creation, but it is a way of thinking and acting based on fear and selfishness, on the principle of evil. Those who seek truth, freedom, and love are hated, persecuted, and expelled almost as if they were the ones who unmasks the egotistical and self-interest of ‘everyone does it’. Those who unjustly suffer hostility, feel lost, but Jesus tells us that we must not fear. He has conquered the world! Jesus clearly says that He is the cause of persecution. It is His Name; it is not knowing the Father’s love. How can those who ignore the Father, love? They will find it difficult to love, both themselves and others.
We know that the verb to know must be understood, not on an intellectual level, but experiential-nuptial. To know the Father is to experience Him in His love … “to be filled by this love”. Only in this way can we also love those who hate us.
Oh, Holy Spirit fill us with Your presence; give us Your light, Your strength in order to be witnesses of Jesus among our brothers and sisters!
The voice of Pope Francis Meditation at St. Martha 4 May 2013
Jesus chose us and redeemed us. He chose us by pure grace. With His death and resurrection, He has redeemed us from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world. The origin of hatred is this: we are saved and the prince of the world, who does not want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to the persecution that from the time of Jesus continues until today. Many Christian communities are persecuted in the world. In this time more than in the early times! Today, now, on this day, at this time. Why? Because the spirit of the world hates.
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Living Scripture 
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