Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” (Mt 11:21a)
There is no rosy-cheeked, gentle Jesus today in the Gospel. He means business. And repentance is a serious business. If we don’t change our ways, it will be a tough life for us, to say the least. Jesus compares it to what happened in Tyre and Sidon or at Sodom: “It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” In other words, if you think that was bad, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Dr. Clarence Jordan was a New Testament scholar and founder of Koinonia Farm in southwest Georgia. He made a colloquial translation of much of the New Testament with a southern drawl. With the Gospel passage from today, Mr. Jordan understood Jesus to be addressing a town that his hearers would have known was not a straight-up place. So, Mr. Jordan interpreted Jesus to say it in this way: “It will be hell for you, Columbus; it will be hell for you, Albany!” Mr. Jordan knew that the truth of God’s word could stir the hearts of his congregants—if he just made it sound a little closer to home, in the “cotton patch.”
For Today: Sometimes, Jesus gives us tough love, just as any loving parent or real friend would. They tell it like it is. They don’t want us to make the same mistake they did or fall by the wayside. Just the same, but on bigger terms, God does not want our souls to perish for all eternity. That’s why he sent his Son. If we just believe in him and change our ways, we’ll have “finger-lickin’ good” eternal life.
Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections