Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

“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 17:18)

     We can almost feel the tension in Jesus’ last words to us. In his prayer to the Father he wants us to be honest with ourselves. Jesus never prayed that his disciples be taken out of the world. No, he prayed that they might find victory in goodness. Scripture scholar William Barclay wrote that Jesus insisted that it was in the rough and tumble of life that a person must live out one’s Christianity.  We have so many choices to make in our daily living. Yet, even in the smallest choice, we become deeper in our God experience or we stray toward evil.

    Recently I finished watching the last season of the drama, Ozark, on Netflix. I was mesmerized with the whole process of the characters’ involvement and then eventual immersion in evil. At the beginning of the story, one man makes a decision to make quick cash through money laundering. Over time he involves his wife, then his teenage children in this endeavor. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the people enmeshed in the money laundering cave into evil: stealing, lying, murder. The sad part is that those implicated become comfortable, even hardened with these selfish decisions that not only destroy people, businesses and family relationships but also decimate their sense of morality.

    Immersion in good and immersion in evil work the same way. Either we nurture a relationship with God and the ensuing life of good that follows, or we are tantalized by evil and become blinded by its consequences. Both ways of life develop slowly and sometimes imperceptibly. So, when Jesus prays about his followers to his Father, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world,” he is praying for each one of us. However, WE are the ones who must decide whom we follow.

         As we prepare for Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, we see so many hallmarks of our society today. We have so much inner turmoil that shows itself in violent thoughts, words, and actions. Yet, we have those gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit that connect us to a deep relationship with Goodness, with God.

  In our first reading today, St. Paul encourages us to help the weak in our society beginning with ourselves: totally opposite of what the characters do in Ozark. Our baby steps toward goodness: reaching out to the elderly in our families, avoid gossiping, bridging relationships among family members, not allowing ourselves to be hampered in making the right decisions, living honestly. We cannot make any of these good decisions without deepening our relationship with God. Psalm 68 reminds us that “Awesome in his sanctuary is God; he gives power and strength to his people.”