Saturday May 20
In the Fourth Gospel: the term world is used in two opposite sense. In the first place, it represents the whole of humanity, loved by God to the point of sending his own Son to save it and not to condemn it (Jn 3:16-17). Secondly, it refers to that dark human horizon where the rejection of Christ is consumed and hatred is chosen, that is, the opposite of the fundamental commandment of love. These are not empty words and that is why the Christian should be fully aware that consistent fidelity to the Gospel: entails rejection, isolation and persecution.
Alternative
“I shall not call you servants,” Jesus said, “I call you friends.” Meister Eckhart drew out the meaning of this. “Love does not wish to be anywhere but where there is likeness and oneness,” he wrote. “Where there is a master and servant there is no peace, for there is no likeness.” Then he gave another image to make it clearer. “A woman and a man are unlike, but in love they are alike. And so Scrip-ture rightly says that God took woman from the man’s rib and side and not from the head or from the feet....” This beautiful interpretation of the Genesis story anticipates by many centuries Kahlil Gibran’s familiar words. G. K. Chesterton wrote, “I love my wife because she is unlike me!” But they were alike in love; they were very different in every other way, but in love there was “likeness and oneness”. And the unifying love between them made them cherish their many differences rather than regret them. There is an infinite difference between the creature and God, but in love we are like God and one with God.