"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
During the Nazi campaign, they arrested not only those Jewish men and women who attended the synagogue. They researched birth records and genealogies to discover Jewish descendants who had not attended synagogue in generations. They also gathered Catholic and Protestant converts, including priests and nuns. Copying the American form of apartheid, they regarded anyone with a Jewish ancestor -- a "single drop of blood" -- as Jewish. Their talents, education, and wealth afforded no privilege.
But violence against Jews began before Jesus was born, during the time of the Maccabees when the Seleucid emperors installed Greek idols in the temple at Jerusalem and demanded that they be honored as gods. Some Jews accepted the new regime, but many refused and paid the price of their fidelity.
The tyrants didn't hate them because they were Jews; they hated them because they belonged to God. The Lord had claimed all the descendants of Abraham and Sarah many centuries before. With God's blessing came their pariah status; it fell even upon those who'd abandoned the faith of their ancestors.
Jesus knew the story; he'd learned it at his mother's knee, as I learned the story of the Know-Nothings in Louisville. He knew the world's hatred of God would include both Jews and Christians. As the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates, gentiles flooded into the Church soon after the Pentecost incident in Jerusalem. The conservative attitudes of Peter and James could not resist their evident faith, and Saint Paul with the gentile Timothy eagerly welcomed them.
Today, we can say, of some Christians who despise Jews, they "are not of our number." Despising the Lord's people, they renounce their own baptism.
Remembering their history, Jewish observers have predicted that racist attitudes and practices against other groups -- African-, Native-, or Asian-Americans -- always include antisemitism. Today, as the world imitates American consumerism and secularism, we should expect the same hostility will fall on faithful Catholics. It will be exacerbated by Catholic teachings about abortion, eugenics, and gay ideology.
This is especially difficult for many Catholics who see themselves as good Americans. Have we not contributed as citizens and taxpayers? Have we not sent our sons and daughter to defend our country? Have we not built universities to promote the American way of life, and hospitals to support our nations health? Have we not provided education, food, and shelter to the poor?
American Catholics do not want to be a people set apart. We see no purpose in that. We would contribute and add to the national spirit of equality, fraternity, and unity. Eagerly we pledge allegiance to one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
In the wake of the Shoah and the Church's renunciation of antisemitism, Catholics must find fellowship with our Jewish neighbors. We belong to the same God; he has claimed us for his own. But we should not be surprised when Jesus says,
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first."
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.