Reflections on Scripture | Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
John 15:18-21

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.”

Reflection

The sign that one is clinging to a lie, basing their life on something that isn't real is vulnerable. And vulnerable to anyone who speaks the truth.

And their reaction is not ‘Let me think about that’, but is ‘Let me destroy you’. So anyone who is speaking the truth has this experience of rejection. And all Jesus is trying to tell his disciples is don't think that's your problem. It's the world's problem. It’s the problem of evil. It cannot tolerate that which is true. So trust.

Trust always. In hanging on to and clinging to what God has taught us. And let those who persecute continue. But knowing that they cannot change us or harm us.

Closing Prayer

Father, there are times when we feel that the world is against us or against what we believe, and this is the time that we have to remember these words, that there is a way in which we are asked to live in a world that is in a sense adverse to what we are, who we are, what we're doing. So let us expect the resistance, but never give in to it. Never fear that it is somehow capable of what it thinks it's capable of, and that is to destroy the truth. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

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Kyle Cross