Isaiah 7:1-9,
Psalm 48:2-3ab.3c-4.5-6.7-8,
Matthew 11:20-24 Full Readings
Time for Repentance
We all know that Jesus performed many miracles and taught in many towns and villages, proclaiming the kingdom of God and calling for repentance. Jesus' miracles aimed at showing the power of God and were instruments to bring people together and believe in the kingdom of God. Unfortunately not all believed in these miracles because they made their hearts stubborn and really hardened them and didn't repent.
It's for this reason that in today's Gospel, Jesus rebukes Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, for hardening their hearts and for not repenting while many miracles had been done in their midst. Jesus gives them a stern warning that their punishment will not even be compared with that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Chorazin and Bethsaida were centres for higher learning of Jewish religion but unfortunately they had not opened up for the Gospel and they lost out. Like many in our time, they were never touched by anything Christ had done in their various cities. That made Jesus to pronounce a strong judgement on them. Jesus warns them passionately and out of love because He knows what punishment awaits them.
Brethren, in our time, we don't have Capernaum nor Bethsaida nor Chorazin and therefore it is an invitation today is to evaluate ourselves: If Jesus visits your community or your family or your village or your workplace, will He be compelled to rebuke you as He rebuked these towns in the Gospel? Perhaps the more emphasis would be if He visits you as an individual would He rebuke you like that? Brethren, it is time to repent, otherwise, Jesus will personally rebuke us and we face His wrath.
We might not have seen miracles, the way they were happening in the past, because we all know what to do and we have been provided with every kind of Good News from the Word of God itself and from our religious leaders. There is no excuse that we don't know what to do. We know what sin is, it's consequences, what brings it and above all that sin will lead us to hell but we still do it and we don't even bother to repent. We have hardened our hearts and become indifferent to the word of God. Brethren, if we don't repent and believe in the Gospel we are putting judgement to ourselves, because we know what to do and we are not doing it.
No wonder, Jesus said, that prostitutes and tax collectors will get the first in the kingdom (Matthew 21:31), because they perhaps have been ignorant of what to do or they have not heard the Gospel and so they cannot be judged like us who have heard and internalised the Gospel. We have been given much and so much is expected from us (LUke 12:48) otherwise, we condemn ourselves and a heavier punishment awaits us.
Our invitation today is to look deep down in our hearts and see where stubbornness to accept the Word of God and to live it dwells and the repent before Jesus rebukes. Jesus’s passionate exhortation invites us to look into our hearts now, to imagine our final reckoning. This practice can be a good remedy against any inclination we have to pass judgment on others. As we saw God promising success and protection to the King of Judah against its enemies in the First Reading, so shall it be with us when we repent and believe in the Gospel and brethren, the time is now not tomorrow nor any other day but NOW.
Reflect today on whether you need a rebuke from Jesus because of stubbornness of heart. What is making you have stubbornness of heart? If you don't need Jesus to rebuke you, then it's time to repent and turn away from all wicked ways and then God will heal us and give us blessings again.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, let me never tire in spirit or become interiorly resistant to see where your love is calling me to ask for your forgiveness. May my help and my salvation be always to lean more deeply upon your mercy and to be more spiritually aware of what in my life causes your heart sorrow. Amen.
Be blessed
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Lord, heal my stubbornness of heart. Amen
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