<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;line-height:1.5"> <div style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends,
<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b> today’s Gospel passage describes the persecution Christians face before
 the end of the world. </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>When will the Church stop <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">being persecuted</span>? When 
the Lord returns,<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> but not before. </span></b></span></span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">From
 the earliest days until the present, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the community of Jesus Christ </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>has 
been the focus of the world’s violence. </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>The old principle of "killing 
the messenger" applies here.</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> The Church will announce, until the end of 
time, that <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">the old world is passing away,</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>that a new world of love, 
non-violence, and life is emerging.</b><b> This announcement always infuriates 
</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the world of sin,</b></span> which explains why the twentieth
century was the bloodiest on record—and the one with the most martyrs.</span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>What
 do we do in the meantime? We maintain a detachment from</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>the world that 
is passing away, </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>our eyes fixed on the world that will never end. And we
 speak confidently, boldly, provocatively the message of the Gospel, the
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> dying</span> and rising of the Lord.</b></span></span></b></b></b></b></div></div></div></div><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br> <table style="border-top:1px solid #d3d4de">
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