Daily Gospel Reflection for May 20, 2015

Today's Gospel: John 17:11B-19

Optional Memorial of Saint Bernardine of Siena, Priest

Jesus prays at the Last Supper. He prays for his disciples. He prays for his followers.

He prays for us.

It is a beautiful prayer. It is also powerful. This part of it really speaks to me lately:

“I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.” - John 17:14

We still do not belong to the world. And the world still hates us. And in a way, as difficult as that can be sometimes, it is pretty awesome, too. Jesus said it would be that way. And he told us that we are blessed if we are persecuted and insulted because of him. (Matthew 5:11).

Jesus does not belong to the world and neither do we. We can never be completely at home here.

And that’s OK. We belong to Jesus.

And I am pretty sure Jesus still prays for us.

Ponder:

What does it mean to belong to the world?
Have you experienced persecution because you are Christian? In what way?

Pray:

Jesus, thank you for your love and your constant presence with us. Help us to live in this world as your disciples and bring us home to you when it is our time. Amen.

We thank our friends at The Word Among Us for providing our gospel reflection team with copies of Abide In My Word 2015: Mass Readings at Your Fingertips. To pray the daily gospels with this wonderful resource, visit The Word Among Us.

Copyright 2015 Colleen Spiro