Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - Tuesday in the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
[Isa 7:1-9 and Matt 11:20-24]Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes." [Matthew]
The towns mentioned in today's gospel scripture were all up in Jesus' home territory at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. Their resistance to Jesus' ministry and teaching was obviously frustrating and Jesus warns them of consequences in failing to repent. He compares them with a pagan territory - Tyre and Sidon!
The Gospel According to Matthew was written for a primarily Jewish Christian community that was experiencing tension with their Jewish neighbors who rejected their preaching. It is as much a warning to those who refused to believe despite "mighty works," as a reminder to disciples of the challenges to be expected and the importance of their own repentance and perseverance in the mission.
The challenge in our own day is the religious indifference of our culture in the USA. Pope St. John Paul II spoke in a letter to the Dominican general chapter in Providence, RI in 2001 of Jesus being consigned to "a distant past or a distant heaven." The phrase, "I'm spiritual but not religious" seems to make oneself the ultimate object of one's belief. Are there any consequences to this other than to one's own feelings and opinions? Even to some Catholics, the faith becomes a set of rituals that provide comfort without consequence if not observed. But if believing disciples draw back into protected enclaves of faith, there are consequences as well. That will mean eventual death to Christianity because no one thought it important enough to share outside the protected fortress. Our baptism is a call to evangelism and not simply membership in an elite and isolated sect! AMEN