**To Whom Do You Belong?**

        In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus says to his disciples: "If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you." It is clear that if the world loves you, you belong to it. And it is also clear that if the world hates you, it is because Christ has chosen you!