In
John’s Gospel we hear a lot about ‘the world’, and it’s fair to say
that what we hear is pretty negative. And today’s Gospel uses the word
several times. We might well wonder what it all means. A lot is at
stake: we all live in the world after all, and no matter how much we
allow our minds to wander and escape, eventually we end up back in it.
One of the ways that we might understand
‘the world’ might be by thinking of it as the physical environment
around us. If that is so – and indeed, people at various points in
history have thought just that – then it looks as though the physical is
something that we should flee from. But to do that would be to ignore
the fuller picture we find in the Scriptures – and to ignore the
evidence from John’s Gospel itself. In the prologue to his Gospel, John
speaks of the Word, Christ, as active in the event of creation, a
passage which itself strongly echoes the very beginning of Genesis.
Everything that God has made is made good. So this ‘world’ that Jesus
speaks of so negatively must be something a little more subtle than
people have often suggested.
The important distinction that Jesus
makes is between being ‘in’ the world as against being ‘of’ the world.
We are creatures, living out our lives within the created order in the
world. But being ‘of’ the world is something that we can and must avoid.
So finding our way through daily lives requires constant evaluation and
discernment. Clearly the Gospel will often put us at odds with the
society in which we live, because we as Christians, as a Church, won’t
just be able to follow the flow of progress wherever it takes us. As
Christians we can, and indeed should, affirm all that is good and true.
But sometimes the current of society pulls away from what is good and
true, and if we are unknowingly swept by it, we will surely become ‘of’
the world. Knowing what is good and true is not always easy, and, both
as individuals and as a Church, requires God’s help to know what’s what.
In Jesus’ great prayer, he asks that the Father ‘sanctify us in the
truth’. Our lives in the world must always be founded on the truth that
Christ has revealed to us, the truth that he himself has received from
the Father. This is always the yardstick for all our judgements.
Perhaps it might help if we were to see
our lives in the light of the mystery of Christ’s Ascension. By his
ascending to heaven in his full humanity, he has opened up for us the
possibility that we too might one day be there with him. We should not
be of the world, because we ultimately belong in heaven, in the presence
of God. Our lives in the world are pilgrimages towards that final goal.
In pursuit of this goal, there are two
pitfalls to avoid. Firstly, if we are of the world, we should be aware
that we have been swept off course, and we are no longer able to make
that journey towards our true home with God until we have found our
bearings. What can certainly help us is frequent examination of
conscience, so that God can help us to see what has a hold of us and
where it has taken us, and then help us to change course. The second
pitfall is the opposite extreme; and that is living with lives separated
from reality. If we refuse to accept that we are in the world – with
all the complexity and struggles that this often brings – we are much
less likely to be able to receive God’s saving power in our lives.
Living fully in the world in the way Christ has taught us provides us
with a way of avoiding these two extremes – safe, free passage for every
pilgrim. (Robert Gay O.P. torch.op.org:here)
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