for May 16
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

The first reading today continues a description of what is traditionally known as Paul’s second missionary journey. But first he is joined by Timothy, who will become a trusted companion and co-worker, and will later have two letters addressed to him by Paul when Timothy is in charge of the Christian community at Ephesus. A possible distraction is why Paul had Timothy circumcised. One logical explanation is that Timothy’s father was Greek and his mother was Jewish. Since the Jewish custom back then was to follow the mother’s religion and religious practices, if Timothy was uncircumcised it might detract from his evangelization of potential Jewish believers. Keep in mind that Jewish Christians back then still basically observed the Mosaic law, though of course non-Christian believers did not.

As the missionary journey continues, we learn that not only are churches increasing in number but they are also growing stronger in the faith. Perhaps the latter could be our prayerful desire during these difficult times. Note that Paul’s geographical decisions are overturned by the Holy Spirit, and then by the Spirit of Jesus (likely meaning the Spirit from Jesus). Rather than seeing these as preventive interventions, they function as positive indications in anticipation of Paul’s ultimate destination, as when he has the vision in Troas beseeching him to help in Macedonia (which is Greece). The help that Paul will offer is proclaiming the Good News. More important, however, is Paul’s recognition that God is calling him to do so. As always, it is all part of the divine plan.

The gospel mentions ‘hate’ several times and while we know linguistically speaking back then ‘hating’ can sometimes mean simply ‘not preferring’, the passage is nonetheless challenging. After all, who wants to be hated, even as we know Jesus was? Yet we are told the world hates us because we do not belong to that world; the world cannot claim us as its own precisely because Jesus has chosen us, though chosen us out of the world.

The truism that a slave is not greater than its master follows but it is then applied to being persecuted as Jesus was persecuted. Think especially of the sporadic Roman persecutions of Christians in the second and third centuries. Is there any contemporary parallel? Just as many did not or would not keep or grasp the words of Jesus, so they don’t or won’t keep our words, our witness on behalf of him. Ultimately, as is often the case in John’s gospel, people missed the meaning of who Jesus was and what he said because they missed his connection with the God he called Father, who sent him into the world, sent him ideally to save rather than to condemn.

But what about us and our world today? In a recent issue of the Jesuit magazine America, Father William McCormick, a visiting professor at St. Louis University, endorses the viewpoint of Russell Hittinger, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The church, Hittinger says, does not have a social teaching; it is a social teaching. Father McCormick then concludes: Might the church model for the world be the vibrant internal life of a community united by common ends and animated by a desire to love and serve both insiders and outsiders?
—Edward O’Donnell SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.