Reading 1
Bar 1:15-22
During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:
"Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.
We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,
nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.
From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt
until the present day,
we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God,
and only too ready to disregard his voice.
And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant,
at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt
to give us the land flowing with milk and honey,
cling to us even today.
For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God,
in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,
but each one of us went off
after the devices of his own wicked heart,
served other gods,
and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9
R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
They have poured out their blood like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O LORD, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Gospel
Lk 10:13-16
Jesus said to them,
"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,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, "Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld."
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
Meditation: Luke 10:13-16
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” (Luke 10:13)
Why was Jesus so upset with these towns? Essentially, because they didn’t do anything. Many of the people liked this miracle-worker from Nazareth, but it seems that they resisted his call to repentance. Through all the miracles he had done there, Jesus showed that he was offering them freedom from sin, healing, and new life. But they let this grace pass them by. How unfortunate— and how tragic.
Six hundred years before Jesus made this pronouncement, a man named Baruch, who was the prophet Jeremiah’s personal secretary, offered a prayer of repentance on behalf of all the people of Israel: “We have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice” (Baruch 1:19). Apparently, God’s call to repentance has a history of falling on deaf ears!
It is one thing to hear Scripture at Mass or to read it in our daily prayer time, but it is another thing to let Jesus write his words on our hearts and transform our minds to be like his. Just to hear God’s word is an activity of our intellects alone. But to let his word pierce us and change us—that also calls for an openness to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to be changed.
God wants to soften our hearts. He wants to make us more and more like Jesus. This is the only reason why he calls us to repentance; the only reason why he invites us to join him on an ongoing journey of conversion, change, and transformation.
Day in and day out, God offers us the grace of repentance: the assurance that our sins are forgiven and the grace to be transformed into Christ. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus comes to us as the physician of our souls. Just as he forgave the sins of the man who was paralyzed and restored him to bodily health, so he continues his work of healing and salvation today through this wonderful sacrament. He invites us to search our hearts and examine our consciences so that we can experience in ever-increasing depth his healing love and grace. So don’t be like Chorazin and Bethsaida. Instead, rejoice in God’s mercy, and open yourself to his transforming power.
“Lord Jesus, your mercies are new every day. Draw me ever closer to your throne of grace.”
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