the world - 5th week lent tuesday

Jesus said that he is not of this worldand that he does not belong to what is below.  And so we ask, who belongs to the world like the Pharisees, how does one get counted to belong to what is below?

In the gospel of John world, and tinaga nga kalibutan has two meanings.  The first meaning of world is everything that God created.  We are inserted in the world, we are part of this world created by God, we live, we work in the world.  This is not the world that Jesus condemns.  All God’s creation is good and that includes our wealth, our resources, our business, our work, our house – all God’s creation is good but only when we allow these to help us become better persons. 

And so we come to the second meaning of the world in the gospel of John.  The second meaning of world hn is anything that is opposed to Jesus.  The world means anything that obstructs me, anything that impedes me from coming to Jesus.  To come from below means I am prone to diversions, I am susceptible to distractions that slow me down in my response to the word and will of Jesus. This is part of living in this world for I am exposed to the things and values of the world making it difficult, but not impossible, only difficult, to respond to the Lord.  Our eyes can be blinded as it were, our values will be questioned, our priorities will be shaken, even our dreams of yesteryears are sometimes taken away from us.  Wala na, naalimunaw na, tinak-an na.

Each of us have our own world so to say - obstacles, hindrances that slow us down or even stop us from following God’s will.  It can be our attachments to our reputation which makes us proud, it can be our attachments to things which makes us greedy, it can be our impatience, our expectations which makes us angry when these are not met.

In the Pharisees it was their refusal to listen to Jesus because he was a Galilean, he was an ordinary rabbi probably lacking in sophistication.  In other words he was not like them.  How can this person teach me when in fact I should be better than him?  And so today let us ask ourselves what are the hindrances that slow me and prevent me from becoming holy, loving, caring and generous?