Today’s Gospel Text: "Woe to you, Chora'zin!
woe to you, Beth-sa'ida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and
ashes. 14 But it shall be more tolerable
in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Caper'na-um, will you
be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. 16 "He who hears you hears
me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who
sent me." Luke 10:13-16
Reflection: “God
is love and he will not bring sinners to judgment, he is not as cruel as you
think he is, he loves every one and hence will save everyone”
If
anyone thinks of God in these terms then they have only to read this message of
Jesus wherein he proclaims woes on the inhabitants of Chorazin, Bethsaida and
Capernaum.
God
indeed is love and his love cannot be taken for granted by one person in order
to score over the other.
It
is a self-centered way of looking at sin, as something personal and not affecting
others.
Whatever
sin we commit by breaking the divine law, as revealed in Scripture, we invite a
curse on ourselves and also on our families and on the society or community in
which we live in.
My
individual sin affects all and may even have an effect on the generations to
follow.
If
we tolerate a serial killer in our midst and would not allow the law enforcing
agency to act against such a one then we are inviting him to keep at it, even
allowing our own lives to be in peril.
Why
do whole cities and nations get destroyed by calamities? Why do sicknesses,
pains and accidents thrive in certain places and situation?
Many
a time it is due to the judgment of God on account of our sinfulness;
for reasons best known to God. As for humans, it could be the nice people and
nice neighbors who faced destruction.
In
such interpretations we are not sitting in judgment, as some would accuse us
but rather it is a call to plead to God for mercy and reaching out to them
in love as God would still want us to, so that the individual may not be lost
for all eternity.
Nevertheless, the call to believe in his assuring word remains: God indeed is our protector and no harm shall befall us unless he has allowed it.
In such interpretations we are not sitting in judgment as some would accuse us of but rather a moment of pleading to God for mercy and reaching out to them in love as God would still want us to, so that the individual may not be lost for all eternity.
In such interpretations we are not sitting in judgment as some would accuse us of but rather a moment of pleading to God for mercy and reaching out to them in love as God would still want us to, so that the individual may not be lost for all eternity.
Prayer: Father of mercy and love, save humanity from the
impending wrath on account of their rejection of the Gospel truths.
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow
in the Lord with us
