October 01: Luke 10:13-16 – Daily Gospel: Desperate Love
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes (Luke 10:13)
Jesus’s words of ‘woes’ pronounced against unrepentant towns (Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum) are reproaches. When a curse intends destruction of the cursed, a reproach is a pronouncement of desperate love facing a procrastination of conversation.
The three towns reproached by the Lord; Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, were towns situated in a square kilometer area. Jesus spent most of the time of this public ministry in the Galilee region and all these towns located there. They were most Divine favored towns because of different reasons namely, Chorazin housed a synagogue with the seat of Moses, Bethsaida the town blessed with the miracle of the multiplication of bread and Capernaum the house of Peter, which was also the second house of Jesus as He had his stay in Peter’s House during the Galilee ministry.
Despite all these blessings received by these towns Jesus observes that the inhabitants resist salvation offered to them through numerous signs and miracles performed by Him. Their rigidity to traditions, practices and customs keep them hard hearted.
Like these towns we are the most favored of the Lord as we are offered with the maximum possibilities of personal sanctification through the Word of God and Sacraments. Sacraments could be looked at as the extension of the public ministry of Our Lord in the Church today. Do I utilize the favored possibilities offered in the church for personal sanctification to assure my salvation?
I am not assured of salvation because I am a Christian – a favored. My salvation will be on the basis of sanctification. Tyre and Sidon were Gentile towns often cursed by prophets as they had a record of persecuting Israelites. And Jesus’ warning that their situation would be better than the favored towns could be a warning to the contemporary Christians compared to the people of other faiths. Today the church teaches the same. Salvation is not based on belonging to any religion, but based on doing good and avoiding evil. A non-Christian who follows the consciousness to do good will be rewarded by the Lord with salvation, who is the source of all goodness.
Today the church commemorates St. Therese of Child Jesus who spent whole religious life inside the walls of the cloistered monastery praying and offering her sufferings for the conversation of sinners.
Amen!