Tuesday, July 12, 2016 15th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Is 7: 1-9 Gospel: Matthew 11:20-24
Jesus began to denounce the cities in which he had performed most of his miracles, because the people there did not change their ways, “Alas for you Chorazin and Bethsaida! If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I assure you, for Tyre and Sidon it will be more bearable on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead! For if the miracles which were performed in you had taken place in Sodom, it would still be there today! But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience) Experience tells us that the love you feel can turn to hatred when the person you love remains unresponsive. Did Jesus’ love for Chorazin and Bethsaida turn to hatred when these towns took his call to repentance for granted? Surely it did not! Jesus will always love sinners.
But he had to leave them where they were because the people had chosen to ignore his miracles and reject him. Why did they? Perhaps they were too full of themselves. When we are too full of ourselves we fail to recognize God wooing us with his manifold blessings.
In the process we become ungrateful. Lest we end up doing what Chorazin and Bethsaida did, let us make regular accounting of our blessings. Praying for the needy will help. In doing so we’d realize that someone down there looks up to us as more complete even as we complain of our poverty.
Counting blessings nurtures grateful hearts. A movement called Pietism cropped up in the Lutheran Church in Germany in the 17th century. This movement popularized the maxim “Denken ist danken” (To think is to thank).
The similarity of these words in both German and English invites us to reflect upon the relationship between thinking and thanking. St. Paul’s advice is to thank God all the time for his indescribable gifts (2 Cor. 9:15). But one can never thank if he never thinks.
Gratitude breaking forth from a heart that is overwhelmed by heavenly blessings is pleasing to God. He draws satisfaction from our acts of gratitude no matter how insignificant because gratitude makes us live our lives to the full.
The love that God feels for us may not turn to hatred if we are unresponsive. But we stand to lose for being ungrateful because we become less human when we fail to recognize the God who created us. -(Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM., MAPM., MMExM., REB., Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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