A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus looked up to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son that your son may give glory to you in as much as you have given him authority over all mankind that he may bestow eternal life on those you gave him. Eternal life is this, to know you, the only true god, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. I have given you glory on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
Do you now, father, give me glory at your side, a glory I had with you before the world began. I have made known your name to those that you gave me out of the world. These men you gave me were yours. They have kept your word. Now they realize that all that you gave me comes from you.
I entrusted to them the message that you entrusted to me, and they received it. They have known that in truth, I came from you. They have believed it was you who sent me. For these I pray, not for the world, but for these that you have given me, for they are really yours. Just as all that belongs to me is yours, so all that belongs to you is mine.
It is in them that I have been glorified. I am in the world no more, but these are in the world as I come to you. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. There is something sad.
At least that's I detect that in both the first and the second readings today. Here is Saint Paul saying goodbye to his friends. He says he's going up to Jerusalem and no hasn't the faintest idea what's going to happen to him there. He says you'll probably see my face no more, and then he gives a summary of what he's tried to do for them. It's a farewell speech.
It's his valedictory. And, of course, what we've read this morning from Saint John is our lord's valedictory, valedictory, his farewell speech to his apostles, his disciples. This is all from the same context as Saint John records it from this from our Lord's parting address to his disciples. I should like to emphasize something here about Saint Paul, and that is his fearlessness. He didn't cut corners.
He did not move. He did not adapt. He did not mold. He did not trim what he considered the word of God, the good news of Jesus Christ to please his hearers. He wasn't out to cultivate his own admiration.
He did not strive to be liked. He wasn't out to gain people's love. He was out for one thing, and that was to give them the message that would save them for eternity, to give them the good news. That's all he wanted to do. And he said he says it very bluntly.
You you couldn't say it anymore boldly or nakedly than he says it. You'd say, well, some of this sounds very prideful to me. No. It isn't. There's no pride in a man who's just hit a home run to say I just hit a home run.
That's not being pride. That's not pride at all. It's simply stating a fact. And that's what Saint Paul is doing here. He says, this is the way I've treated you.
This is what I've tried to do for you. I have not tried to curry your favor. I have not watered down doctrines which would which you might not like. I did not hesitate to reprove you and your the lives you were leading. I did not seek to be liked by you at all.
All I wanted was to save you. You'd see where I'm going, don't you? Because you see today we've talked so much about ecumenism and peace and unity and loving all men, and I guess all women too, that's easier. Well, that we that we have lost some of these aspects, that the world's going to hate us, and yet we try to make the world love us. We curry the world.
Christ said, I am not of the world. You see, you couldn't say it any more clearly than our blessed lord laid it right on the line. And Saint Paul, it follows along completely, totally, totally. You see, it's all very well to say, let us emphasize what we agree on. Now that's that's there's nobody who can reject or downgrade or or or deny or minimize that.
That is absolutely correct. But you see the danger is, and this is what has happened, that in in emphasizing what we have in common, the lowest common denominator, we have neglected, we have minimized, we have ignored, if not denied, some of the essential things that we don't have in common at all, like the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, like the nature of the hierarchical priesthood, like the like the fact of sin and the need for repentance and contrition. I've just read a cat I've just read a catechism where they give the acts of faith, hope, and charity. No act of contrition there at all. What do you think of that?
Published in 1981. This the idea of sin doesn't come in. The Eucharist is a sacrament of unity with our brethren. You don't even have to be a Christian to believe that kind of stuff. Are we going to be identified with the pagans?
In many instances, you know, they have a far more supernatural view than many of our so called religions have today. The church has become, and I mean the Catholic church, has become in many instances almost an introduction, a corridor to a YMCA or to a social service organization, to a welfare operation, to another channel to bring peace to the world. And the definition of that is the absence of war, which of course is a negative. And how can you have a definition of a positive through a negative? See, it's of course, it's all a lot of nonsense.
That's what it boils down to. And Christ just said said, I came to bring the sword. This is rough stuff, you know. It is rough. It's it's not simple.
And you see, when the world takes us over, when the world likes us, when the world stops persecuting the church, watch out. We're in trouble. Because one of two things has happened. Either the world has become truly Christian or that Christians have become truly worldly. That's your only choice.
And it's I don't see many signs that the world about us is becoming highly Christian, is becoming you see, we use the word pagan, but that's an insult to an honest to god pagan. The pagans believed in god almighty. The pagans believed in a power greater than themselves. A good pagan believed in a in a reality beyond the reality of this life. And the world in which we're living rejects all of that and is saying all we need is to make this a better world.
Christ never said I have come to make this a better world. He never said that. All he said was, I have come to help you to ensure, in matter of fact, to ensure that you will attain your destiny, which is not of this world. See, that's what Christ said. And if we're called Christians, it behooves us to be like Christ.
Now as I said, when you talk like this, you see, it sounds terribly pessimistic. It sounds terribly down. It sounds as if you're going against all human endeavor, all human ambition, all human aspiration. Of course, that's nonsense too. Not only that, it's absurd.
Because a person who is lined up with Jesus Christ is going to be lined up with his fellow man. You can't love God without loving your neighbor. But remember, as soon as I say that, let me hasten to add, the standard of loving your neighbor is yourself. See, there's so you can you can read sermons today in which the love of self isn't even mentioned. They'll talk about the love of neighbor.
Oh, we that's sometimes even god's left out. But remember, the first commandment is loving god, and the second is loving your neighbor as yourself. You come in before your neighbor because you're the standard of loving your neighbor. And so when let's come back, you see, to remember, Christianity is unwelcomed by the world because it stands opposed to the world. It stands opposed to nature.
It is supernatural. Now that doesn't mean it rejects the natural. Of course not. It is built on it, but left to itself, we know what man can do left to himself. We we have plenty of evidence.
And where does it get us? We know where it gets us because we we have been there and are there. And so we come back to Saint Paul in his clear cut statement. It's it's brutal almost. He's saying, I don't care what you think of me.
I have done what I could in the name of God to bring you his message. Now I am not the keeper of your consciences anymore. It's up to you. That's what he said very plainly, very plainly. I'm not this may be a paraphrase, but it's close to the original.
You just heard it. And so let us not be afraid of being Catholics. We are not just Christians, and we have a lot in common with other Christians. But we have a lot more that they don't have and that they reject. And therefore, they are opposed to it and ought to be opposed to it, and rightly so if they think they're right and we are wrong.
You can't love error. And so let us not be afraid. Let us not be timid. Let us not be embarrassed. Let us not be apologetic.
We know where we stand. We stand firmly, or we ought to be standing firmly with Jesus Christ, with Saint Paul, with the disciples, and with the saints down the centuries. That is the company we keep. Let us keep on keeping it. The prayer of the faithful now we are making this novena for Pentecost.