John 17:11 - 19
In Genesis after God creates
everything, he looks at it and calls it “very good”. And in the
Gospel of John, we have that famous bible verse, chapter 3, verse 16:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life.” And yet, here we have Jesus talking in terms that seem to
split his disciples off from the world. The world, Jesus says, hates
them because they are not of the world any more than He is of the
world. And yet Jesus does not pray that we will be taken out of the
world, but rather, that we will be protected from the world. In fact
he sends us into the world.
So what is this seeming contradiction?
Does it mean that Jesus used the word “world” in a different way
that those other passages? I think if that were the case people
could have done a better job translating. I think the word is
deliberate.
We human beings are part of nature,
part of the world. That is basically a good thing. We share
something with all other material creatures. Every creature has a
“nature” and humans are no exception. Human nature got to be the
way it is through evolution. And anyone who knows a little history
could probably name components of human nature. They include good
things like self-preservation, forming families and tribes –
looking after each other. The instinct to be a father or a mother,
to work to give our children better lives than we've had; even the
instinct to worship God. But there are bad things about human nature
as well – fear of strangers; the tendency to see the world as a
zero sum game where we need to struggle to get our share; and the
desire to be respected, or at least not to be disrespected. We
humans, especially males, have an instinct to form hierarchies, where
those on the top use those below.
And it's hard to believe, but God
loves humanity, including human nature. We see some of God's friends
in the Old Testament being all too human. Abraham and David commit
adultery; Jacob lies to his father and cheats his brother; Judah
sleeps with his daughter in law. David commits murder. And yet God
continues to love them and bestow blessings on them.
But his greatest blessing was to
become one of us. Jesus tells his followers that they are not of the
world because he gave them the word of the Father – so that their
joy may be complete.
Jesus shows us through word and
example the next step in human evolution and calls us to literally
change our nature. No more us vs. them, no more exploiting other
people, no more fearing the stranger, no more operating on the idea
that there isn't enough for everybody so I better get mine. Jesus
calls us to a fundamental unity, one in which all human beings can
take part, a unity which includes Jesus – God Himself.
How do we become “not of this
world?” We have to practice being different. And there are two
dangers. One is, as someone said, to be different but make ourselves
a small target. We can do this by equating religion with social work
or self-help. Who can hate that? Certainly not the world. Nobody
will crucify you if you are harmless, turned inward, and your
religion consists of doing good. Some people, as you know, are
critical of Pope Francis because they think this is the kind of faith
he is preaching, a faith in which everyone gets the benefit of the
doubt.
The other danger is to withdraw from
the world. We can be like the Amish and have very little to do with
the rest of humankind, and we see that tendency all over the world
when it comes to religion. Every religion has a group of people who
are trying to avoid contamination by people who are not as religious
as they are. We can withdraw mentally as well. We can have a secret
knowledge that only those who are saved can participate in. And we
can make that knowledge a condition for belonging. We Catholics do
that a little bit.
One of the ancient rabbis told a
wonderful story about a man who came to a small town. He noticed
that everyone was barefoot, even though there was snow on the ground.
He asked his carriage driver, why are you barefoot, don't you know
about shoes? The driver replied that he did. Why aren't you wearing
them? The driver said, yes, that would be a good thing. The visitor
found that the same question got the same answer; general agreement
that shoes were a good thing, but no one was wearing them.. Finally
he met someone who said, “We have a shoe factory in town, and every
week they tell us how good it would be for us to wear shoes. And we
all agree.”
We have been sent into the world to
continue Christ's mission of creating a new humanity, a new human
nature. It can be done – that's what we mean by a saint. It
requires more than agreeing with the word that Jesus gave us. We
have to practice, we have to know how to be different, yes, but then
we have to be different, and that requires an act of the will.
It would sure be nice to have shoes –
the shoe people tell us about a few people who wear shoes and their
feet are warm and they can walk on gravel without pain. Someday
maybe I'll get some shoes.
And Jesus tells us that he has given
us his father's word and this makes us not of this world. And if we
listen to him we see how this new way of being human is different
from the old way. But if we are to be consecrated in truth, we have
to practice this difference. And he wants us to show this new way to
other people, that's why he sent us into the world. And of course he
promises that if we become new people, if we take on a nature that is
molded by the Holy Spirit instead of evolution, we will have joy.
But it's hard, and that's why he prays
for us.
