Friday's Gospel: Divine Laments

Gospel for Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, with commentary.

Gospel: (Lk 10:13-16)

Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! 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. But it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.  And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.

He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.


Commentary

Our Lord opens his heart in laments of love. After giving instructions to seventy-two of his disciples for the first apostolic mission, he laments the hardness of heart and blindness, when the announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom of God reached them, of those cities that had witnessed so many and such great miracles. To get them to react, our Lord speaks to them of judgment and hell, of the repudiation of those who reject peace, which is brought by Christ, our Lord.

Today we continue to witness great miracles, not only in causes of beatification and canonization, but also in so many wonders that grace works in us and in the people close to us. And if this is not the case, we would have to cry out: Lord, let me see! (cf. Mk 10:51). Let me see the wonders that your mercy is carrying out.

It may be that Christ frequently passes by our side and speaks to us through the words of a friend or a priest, and we don’t pay attention, because our thoughts are on other concerns. It is good in such cases to remember what the Holy Spirit tells us in Sacred Scripture: “Today when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb 3:15), open wide the doors to Christ.

We recognize our Lord’s voice because it invites us with a loving demand to give the best of ourselves in the various situations of our life. And he does so because our happiness and that of others is at stake. Not only bad will causes the hardening of one’s heart, but also laziness, the laziness that leads to rejecting the divine requirements with a no or with a tomorrow, later, afterwards.[1]

[1] Cf. The Way, no. 251.