keep you from stumbling and falling away. They will put you out of the synagogue. Still more, the hour is coming,
when anyone who kills you will claim to be serving God; they will do this, because they have not known the Father or me. I
tell you all these things now so that, when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you about this
in the beginning, because I was with you.

Reflection:

Jesus forewarns the disciples that much persecution,
including martyrdom, awaits them. But he also gives them
an insight: their enemies would do so to them precisely
because “they have not known the Father” or the Son. It is this
awareness that makes it easy for Jesus to pray, “Father, forgive
them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). Peter
refers to such ignorance in his address to his fellow Jews: “And
now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also
your rulers” (Acts 3:17). Paul too refers to such ignorance when
he writes thus: “None of the rulers of this age understood
this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Once we realize that people hurt us out
of ignorance of who God truly is, it is easier for us to forgive and
reach out to them and share our Father with them.

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