The Scorn of the World

“Then he went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is beside himself’” (Mark 3:19-21).
 
      Often it must seem to the world that true Christians are beside themselves. To the world, they seem to be crazy. How many times did people say that Jesus had a demon (Mark 3:22; John 10:20; 7:20; 8:48, 52)? After hearing St. Paul’s defense, the governor “Festus said with a loud voice, ‘Paul, you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad’” (Acts 26:24). It is the same even in the Old Testament. At the last judgment when the wicked will see the just man in glory, they will say, “This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—we fools! We thought that his life was madness and that his end was without honor” (Wis. 5:4).
        Why is this the case? It is because the true Christian does not love the world in its worldliness and does not imitate its ways. He preaches to the world to save it, but he renounces its pleasures in order not to divide his heart. “Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1-2). A true Christian distances himself from worldly ways. He rejects the broad and comfortable way of the world, the way of the many, the way of perdition; and chooses instead the difficult way and the narrow gate of the few, the way of life (Matt. 7:13-14). But to those who are on the broad way of the world and its delights, those who are taking the difficult and narrow way of life seem to be crazy, beside themselves. If those on the broad path think that theirs is the correct path, then naturally the few who have rejected their path must be crazy. But they are mistaken
         The way of the few is the way of renunciation of the unnecessary pleasures of the world in order to have an undivided heart in their love for God. This is the way of life which few choose (Matt. 7:13-14). Even in the Old Testament, those who fasted an lived an austere life were the laughingstock of the rest. “When I humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me” (Ps. 69:10-12).
        The Christian trusts completely in Jesus Christ for his salvation and new life in the light. For the world which does not believe in Christ, this also is madness. To the world that lives only for things that are seen, only for the sensible pleasures of this present life, a life of faith seems like madness. The true Christian must, therefore, put up with the scorn of the world. This is the cross he must bear.

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