Martyrdom of Saint protomartyr Polycarp of Smyrna
| John | |||
| English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
| John 15 | |||
| 18. | If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. | Si mundus vos odit, scitote quia me priorem vobis odio habuit. | ει ο κοσμος υμας μισει γινωσκετε οτι εμε πρωτον υμων μεμισηκεν |
| 19. | If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. | Si de mundo fuissetis, mundus quod suum erat diligeret : quia vero de mundo non estis, sed ego elegi vos de mundo, propterea odit vos mundus. | ει εκ του κοσμου ητε ο κοσμος αν το ιδιον εφιλει οτι δε εκ του κοσμου ουκ εστε αλλ εγω εξελεξαμην υμας εκ του κοσμου δια τουτο μισει υμας ο κοσμος |
| 20. | Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. | Mementote sermonis mei, quem ego dixi vobis : non est servus major domino suo. Si me persecuti sunt, et vos persequentur ; si sermonem meum servaverunt, et vestrum servabunt. | μνημονευετε του λογου ου εγω ειπον υμιν ουκ εστιν δουλος μειζων του κυριου αυτου ει εμε εδιωξαν και υμας διωξουσιν ει τον λογον μου ετηρησαν και τον υμετερον τηρησουσιν |
| 21. | But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him who sent me. | Sed hæc omnia facient vobis propter nomen meum : quia nesciunt eum qui misit me. | αλλα ταυτα παντα ποιησουσιν υμιν δια το ονομα μου οτι ουκ οιδασιν τον πεμψαντα με |
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: James 4:13-17
Trust in Divine Providence
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[13] Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain"; [14] whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that." [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. [17] Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
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Commentary:
13-17. Overweening self-confidence is a type of pride because it means one is forgetful of who God, in his providence, rules over the lives of men. St James reminds those who are totally caught up in their business affairs that human life is something very impermanent (v. 14). He made the same point earlier with the simile of the flower of the grass (cf. 1:9-11); now he puts it in terms of the fleetingness of mist (a familiar Old Testament image; cf., e.g., Job 7:7-16; Ps 102;4; Wis 2:4). "Earthly life is a wearisome thing," St Gregory the Great reminds us, "more unreal than fables, faster than a runner, with many ups and down caused by unreliability and weakness; we shelter in houses made of clay (in fact, life itself is merely clay); our fortitude, our resolution, has no substance; such rest and repose as we get in the midst of our activities and difficulties is of no help" ("Exposition on the Seven Penitential Psalms", Ps. 109, Prologue).
A Christian should trustingly abandon himself into the hands of God, but that does not in any sense mean that he may irresponsibly opt out of his duties or avoid exercising his rights.
15. "If the Lord wills": this expression is to be found elsewhere in the New Testament; St Paul uses the same words (cf. 1 Cor 4:19) or ones like them, when speaking about his personal plans (cf. Acts 18:21; Rom 1:10; 1 Cor 16:7). It is a saying which has passed into popular Christian speech and it shows a readiness to leave one's future in God's hands, trusting in divine providence.
17. As elsewhere in the letter, St James ends this passage with a general maxim (cf. 1:12; 2:13; 3:18). In this instance, to emphasize the need to prove one's faith and one's grasp of the faith by action (cf. 2:14-16), he gives a warning about sins of omission. Once again, the Master's teachings are reflected in what the sacred writer says: "the servant who knew his master's will, and did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating" (Lk 12:47).