Today's Gospel: John 15:18-21 In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks about hatred. That’s a bit disconcerting, don’t you think? Our God of Love tells us that the world will hate us! We know that the world hated Jesus. He was rebuked and condemned to die, but why should the world hate us? Before I became Catholic, I thought I was loved. I was single with a long-time boyfriend and lots of friends. I had my own apartment, a decent job and the freedom to do whatever I wanted. Or so I thought. My world began to crumble. The boyfriend betrayed me, the friends became weird and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt unloveable. I met my husband, converted to the Catholic faith, got married, had kids and well, I felt loved! But not quite. Not everyone was happy with my conversion and the last of the friends departed. When I started blogging about being Catholic, a new hatred emerged. Strangers challenged my beliefs and when I didn’t agree with them, the mild threats came. After a few years of this, I was thoroughly confused. My new-found faith and lifestyle was not working for people who disagreed with it, but I wasn’t going back to my old life. Ever. Today’s Gospel gives me a lot to think about. Hatred is a gruesome thing. It eats away at our soul like something out of a Stephen King novel. But it also reminds us that our God of Love was hated first, to show us how to act and respond to those who hate us. It’s a difficult journey, one that I’m still trying to get the hang of.

Ponder:

How has hatred affected your life?

Pray:

Lord, help me replace any hatred in my heart with compassion, understanding and love. Lord, help me to pray for those who feel any hatred towards me.
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