Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflection July 17, 2018

Your daily Gospel reflection... Tuesday, July 17, 2018 Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 11:20-24 Friends, today Jesus declares judgment on the towns of Galilee that did not believe in him and repent. He stands at the end of the long line of prophets God sent in order to reconcile his people to himself. Like the prophets before him, Jesus is ignored, mocked, and rejected. What happens as a result of man’s refusal of God? Not nothing. God’s judgment falls on the unfaithful nation. What is the instrument of God’s justice? One of the heathen nations, the Chaldeans, come and destroy the city of Jerusalem, burn the Temple, carry off its most sacred objects, and force the Israelites into exile. And then the Romans follow suit in the first century. Is this bad luck? Just the typical give and take of geopolitical forces? No! The Bible insists that this should be read as God’s action, more specifically, as God’s judgment and punishment. Mind you, this is not an arbitrary punishment, something cruel and vindictive; rather, it is God allowing the fallen nation to feel the effects of its sin. So what’s the lesson? Sin has consequences, and we rarely have to wait for the next world to experience them.

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 390

Reading 1 Is 7:1-9

In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah,
Rezin, king of Aram,
and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah,
went up to attack Jerusalem,
but they were not able to conquer it.
When word came to the house of David that Aram
was encamped in Ephraim,
the heart of the king and the heart of the people trembled,
as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

Then the LORD said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz,
you and your son Shear-jashub,
at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,
on the highway of the fuller’s field, and say to him:
Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear;
let not your courage fail
before these two stumps of smoldering brands
the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans,
and of the son Remaliah,
because of the mischief that
Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah,
plots against you, saying,
“Let us go up and tear Judah asunder, make it our own by force,
and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.”

Thus says the LORD:
This shall not stand, it shall not be!
Damascus is the capital of Aram,
and Rezin is the head of Damascus;
Samaria is the capital of Ephraim,
and Remaliah’s son the head of Samaria.

But within sixty years and five,
Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm
you shall not be firm!

Gospel Mt 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.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:

Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the nether world.

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”