SIN – IN US

October 1, Friday

TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      The reading from Baruch is not from the hand of Baruch, who was the secretary of Jeremiah. It dates from the time of the Maccabees and is like a penitential celebration deploring the sins that had led to the present calamities and oppression.

      Modern means of communications have brought the world more closely together and shown us more clearly too the presence of sin and evil in the world; more than half of the world is hungry and exploited, the world economy has gone out of hand notwithstanding dole-outs for development aid and whole nations are not free from inside or from outside. And in our own little worlds there is repeated selfishness, pride at the expense of others, suspicion… While condemning the sins of society, let us not lose our personal sense of sin in the process; let us not forget our solidarity of sin and at the same time live better our solidarity with love and life on account of Christ. Sin is a rejection of Christ and his message.

 

First Reading: Baruch 1:15-22

“When we look at our Lord God, we see justice; when we look in the mirror, we see confusion; when we look through the window, we see shame on the faces of the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Our king, leaders, priests, prophets, ancestors are all ashamed to death. We’ve sinned before the Lord, and we’ve lost our credibility with him. “We haven’t heard the voice of our Lord God recently; we haven’t obeyed the commandments, even though they were presented to us face-to-face. From the day the Lord led our ancestors from the land of Egypt down to this very day we’ve gone out of our way to do the wrong thing; that’s why we tiptoe about, lest our Lord God hear where we are.

“Evil and rumors of evil have damaged the splendid reputation the Lord conferred upon his servant Moses. That was the day on which he led our forebears out of the land of Egypt to the land of milk and honey. Since that day we haven’t obeyed God, even though he sent prophet after prophet to warn us. Instead we flirted with idols; we’ve done nothing but evil right under God’s nose.

 

Gospel: Luke 10:13-16

“Doom, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had been given half the chances given you, they’d have been on their knees long ago, repenting and crying for mercy. Tyre and Sidon will have it easy on Judgment Day compared to you.

“And you, Capernaum! Do you think you’re about to be promoted to heaven? Think again. You’re on a mudslide to hell.

“The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God, merciful Father,
it is easy for us to condemn wars, civil strife,
corruption, exploitation, slavery of any kind.
But we ask you, Lord God, though very timidly,
to open our eyes to the evil in us.
Make us see, Lord, that we are doing
on a small scale, in our own little worlds,
the evil for which we blame the big world.
Make us see that we too are sinners in need of forgiveness
brought us by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Leaving Jesus in the Church!

The month of October is dubbed as the missionary month. The month opens with the Feast of St. Teresa of Liseaux, the patron saint of the Missions. Later this month, the Church will celebrate the Mission Sunday, reminding us of our vocation to be Missionaries and to be in solidarity with the missionaries around the world. Month of October is also the Month of the Rosary. The Church invites us to grow closer to the Mysteries of the life of Jesus through meditating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Blessed Mother. The life of St. Teresa of Child Jesus introduces to us the Little Way – the way of being a child before God and invites us to grow up in a father-child relationship.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is saddened at being rejected, he presents Strong words against towns where he had preached extensively – Chorazin, Bethsaida and especially Capernaum. Chorazin was near the Sea of Galilee, close to Capernaum. Bethsaida was the home of some of Jesus’ disciples. Capernaum was the centre from which Jesus did much of his missionary work.

Jesus is saddened and feels frustrated – begins to feel that all his efforts over the years to convince his listeners to repent and turn back to the ways of God has gone futile. The people who witnessed and were recipients of all his miracles, people who listened to his teachings, but refused to accept him. This frustration prompts him to refer to the pagan territories who had no chances of listening to the Word of God. “If the work I had done here, were done elsewhere, the results would have been better!”

We are entering into the Mission Month. It is also a time we gratefully remember the great missionary activities undertaken by numerous missionaries across the world. But during their mission endeavours, many of them have encountered the same frustration. In spite of all the good efforts and hard toil for the Gospel, frustrations creep in when they realise that their preaching has fallen in deaf ears. This rejection of the Word of God is not necessarily by the non-Christians. We, Christians fail to respond to the voice of Christ and how frustrating that rejection could be for the Lord?

While explaining the passage, Pope Francis had said, “We risk living out our Christianity as “a social habit”, in a purely formal manner, … And when Mass is over, we leave Jesus in the Church; He does not come with us when we return home, does not come into the education of our children, into our school, into our neighbourhood. When we do this, we cast Jesus out from our hearts: We are Christians, but we live as pagans.”

Video available on Youtube: Leaving Jesus in the Church!