SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER
Acts 16: 1-10 Ps 100: 1-3, 5 Jn 15: 18-21
LOVE, IN A WORLD OF HATRED
In 1895 the French Church joyously welcomed the news of Diana Vaughan, a new convert to Catholicism from Satanism and Freemasonry. Diana was portrayed in the Catholic press as a new Joan of Arc, fighting against the forces of evil and hatred. Her devotional writings were widely circulated and were received even by the Lisieux Carmel with great joy, enthusiasm and expectation. As a sign of appreciation and encouragement, the Prioress herself sent a personal note to Diana along with a picture of some of the nuns enacting a play of Joan of Arc. So renowned had the conversion and transformation become that it even reached the years of the Pope. Shortly thereafter, however, at a highly publicized press conference, Leo Taxil, Diana’s friend and spokesperson, mockingly revealed that Diana was only a fabrication to embarrass the Catholic Church and highlight how superficial and naive Catholic piety is. As an example of this foolishness, the same picture of the Lisieux nuns was projected in the background and appeared in the papers in the photo of Taxil the following day. A simple, genuine gesture of love was rewarded with bitter humiliation and betrayal.
Hatred, which Jesus cautioned his disciples would be their lot as was His own, comes in many shades: betrayal, discrimination, injustice, cruelty, harassment, torture and violence. The warning verses follow immediately after his command to “love one another.” Love is not always reciprocated with love. Yet, we are called to follow in the footsteps of our Lord because there is a promise attached to it. Love, bear fruit, and the Father will give whatever you ask. Taxil may have mocked the Christian faith. But he didn’t have the last word. In that picture of the Lisieux Carmel, Joan of Arc was played by the future St Therese, who would be instrumental in the conversion of several unnamed real-life Diana’s. Hatred may seem powerful for a short time, but it can never overcome love. In the end Love alone triumphs.
Response: Cry out with joy to the Lord all the earth.
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