Friday, October 4, 2019
26th Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading:
Bar 1: 15- 22
Gospel Reading:
Lk 10:13-16
Jesus said, “Alas for you Chorazin! Alas for you Bethsaida! So many miracles have been worked in you! If the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would already be sitting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better than for you on the Judgment Day. And what of you, city of Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead.
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life
Experience)
God often evokes repentance on people not by rebuke but by miracles. Jesus did this many times in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. But the miracles he performed in these towns failed to move people to repentance. Jesus got a better response with Peter. Experiencing Jesus’ miracle at sea Peter said, “Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man”. In contrast Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum remained adamant.
Two of Jesus’ famous miracles were performed in Bethsaida. There he did the multiplication of the loaves (Luke 9:10-17) and the healing of a blind man (Mark 8:22-25). At Capernaum Jesus healed the paralytic (Mt. 9:1-8, Mk. 2:1-12, Lk. 5:17-26.) and Peter’s mother – in-law. Despite these, they continued to coddle paganism. Excavations at Chorazin yielded remains of a synagogue with a Medusa on its wall. Medusa was a creation of Greek mythology and people believed that by looking directly at her image one could turn into a stone (www.churchisraelforum.com).
While we are not pagans we deserve the same rebuke for not responding to an endless list of divine gifts. Foremost is the gift of life. If God were not lavish in his generosity, he could have cut our lives off the first time we committed sin. He did not. God sustains our lives even as we continue sinning because he doesn’t want to limit our chances to repent.
We can multiply examples of God’s sustaining presence as much as we can multiply examples of our ingratitude. This notwithstanding God continues to attract us with miracles happening in the daily grind. But remember there is always an end to everything. Either we end our ingratitude or death drags us to the end of our lives unprepared for judgment. Good if we only get a rebuke as did the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capaernaum. What if as foretold by the Prophet Amos (3:2) we get severely punished? Who can stand the wrath of God? (Rev. 6:12-17) – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.