As the tender rose from sharp thorns grows,
Knowing not how to wound
and fairer far than parent stem
A spotless virgin new,
to mend that ancient virgin’s fault.
– Coelius Sedulius (5th Century)
John 15:18-21
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me. “
What do the Fathers say?
St John CHRYSOSTOM. I have said that I lay down My life for you, and that I first chose you. I have said this not by way of reproach, but to induce you to love one another.
Then as they were about to suffer persecution and reproach, He bids them not to grieve, but to rejoice on that account:
If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you: as if to say, I know it is a hard trial, but you will endure it for My sake.
As if Christ’s suffering were not consolation enough, He consoles them still further by telling them, that the hatred of the world would be evidence of their goodness; so that they ought rather to grieve if they were loved by the world: as that would be evidence of their wickedness.
St AUGUSTINE. For why should the members exalt themselves above the head? You refuse to be in the body, if you are not willing, with the head, to endure the hatred of the world.
For love’s sake let us be patient: the world must hate us. If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
Our Lord tells them that the world will hate them, persecute them, despise their word For His Name’s sake, i.e. in you they will hate Me, in you persecute Me, your word they will not keep, because it is mine.
And all because they do not know Him that sent Me,
Pope St GREGORY the Great. For the condemnation of the perverse, is our praise. There is nothing wrong in not pleasing those, who do not please God. For no one can by one and the same act please God, and the enemies of God. He proves himself no friend to God, who pleases His enemy;
and he whose soul is in subjection to the Truth, will have to contend with the enemies of that Truth.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
Artwork ex Wikimedia Commons