Chosen you out of the world<\/strong> \u2014 that’s the reason Christ gives his apostles for why the world will hate them, and it’s worth sitting with before anything else is said this morning. Beloved, grace and peace to you this morning \u2014 however you arrive here: tired or hopeful, certain or doubting, welcomed elsewhere or shut out elsewhere. Bloom is not a room you have to earn your way into. Sit with us a moment, offered today in the spirit of a low Mass \u2014 Word, prayer, and offering, without pretense to more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 138:7, 1-2)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable: their dominion is exceedingly strengthened. Lord, thou hast searched me and known me, the verse continues: thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God, who hast granted us to come to the knowledge of thy name through thy blessed apostles Simon and Jude: grant us to celebrate their everlasting glory by growing in that knowledge, and to grow through celebrating it. (Confirmed, directly sourced \u2014 Missale Romanum 1962, feast of Ss. Simon and Jude, Apostles)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ephesians 4:7-13<\/a>, Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brethren: To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Wherefore he saith: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men. Now that he ascended, what is it, but because he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 44:17, 18)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth: they shall be mindful of thy name, O Lord. Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee, the verse continues: therefore shall peoples praise thee. Alleluia, alleluia. To me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable: their dominion is exceedingly strengthened. Alleluia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John 15:17-25,<\/a> Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you. 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. 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. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus doesn’t tell his apostles the world will hate them because of something they’ve done. He’s specific about the actual reason: because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.<\/strong> The hatred isn’t a response to bad behavior. It’s a response to a change in identity \u2014 to no longer belonging to the category the world expects you to belong to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That distinction matters more than it might first appear. A world that punishes wrongdoing is, at least in theory, playing by rules a person could choose to follow. A world that hates you for what you’ve become \u2014 for who you were chosen and made into, rather than for anything you did \u2014 isn’t offering you a way back in. There’s no behavior to fix. The hatred is aimed at the fact of the change itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve talked with trans people who did everything right by every standard anyone ever handed them, who were kind, honest, faithful, careful \u2014 and found that none of it mattered, because the object of the world’s hostility was never their conduct. It was the fact that they had become, plainly and irreversibly, someone other than who the world had assumed they’d stay. Simon and Jude heard exactly that from Christ before it ever happened to them: the world will hate you for the same reason it hated me \u2014 not for what you did, but for whose you’ve become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Christ offers isn’t a promise that the hatred will stop, or a plan for making yourself acceptable to a world that was never going to accept the change. He offers something else: the plain naming of why it’s happening, so no one mistakes it for their own failure. If the world hates you for having been chosen out of it, that is not evidence you did something wrong. It’s evidence the choosing was real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Venerating the everlasting glory of thy holy apostles Simon and Jude, we beseech thee, O Lord: that, purified by these sacred mysteries, we may celebrate it more worthily. (Confirmed, directly sourced \u2014 Missale Romanum 1962, Secret, feast of Ss. Simon and Jude)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Go in peace, beloved \u2014 carrying with you the truth of who you’ve become, whatever it has cost you and whoever has made you feel it was a mistake. If you believe in a God who chooses people out of the world on purpose, may that choosing steady you today. And if you hold no such belief, may you still trust that being hated for who you are is not the same thing as being wrong. May you be blessed and kept, this day and always.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIntroit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Collect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Epistle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gradual<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gospel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Offering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Secret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Holding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n