Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

In this transcription, the speaker reflects on the Gospel reading from Matthew, where Jesus reproaches the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for not repenting despite witnessing his mighty deeds. The speaker explains that these towns were in close proximity to each other and were the main locations of Jesus' ministry. They emphasize that even though these towns were small and ordinary, Jesus chose to be present there and shows that no life is too small or insignificant for him. The speaker challenges the listeners to reflect on their own lives and how they have embraced Jesus' teachings and experienced his extraordinary love and grace. They express gratitude for Jesus' teachings and ask for forgiveness for their own resistance and lack of embracing his kingdom way. The speaker concludes by asking Jesus to reveal his love and presence in their lives and to touch their ordinary lives with his extraordinary grace, love, mercy, and power. Greetings, friends. What a joy to share the Gospel with you. On this Tuesday of the 15th week in Ordinary Time, our Gospel comes from Matthew, chapter 11, verses 20 through 24. Then 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 netherworld. 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. Our gospel today brings us once again to what is known as the gospel or evangelical triangle, the geographic triangle made up of these three cities on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. This is, mind you, a very tiny area geographically. If you start in Capernaum, where Jesus made his home during his time of public ministry, and travel east for about five miles along the shore, that northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, you'll be in Bethsaida. From there, go east, slightly northeast, for five miles, just a bit more, and you are in the third city, Chorazin. From Chorazin, it is a short two and a half miles south, and you're back in Capernaum. There you have the gospel triangle, where most of Jesus' public ministry of preaching, teaching, and mighty deeds took place. Notice again how tiny this area is, five miles by five miles by two and a half miles. Now we see how the divine Son of God, when he made himself small, born as a baby in Bethlehem, made his whole life very small. He didn't ever go too far, never really got all that far from home. You know something? Your life, my life, is not too small for Jesus. Wherever we live, whatever things we might accomplish, probably not very earth-shaking, none of it is too small, too insignificant for our Lord Jesus. He shows himself, right here in this gospel we just shared, willing to become small to occupy with us our very ordinary space, to be with us in the mostly unexceptional things that we are involved in day by day. The challenge of the gospel is pretty real too. Somehow, Jesus, again the divine Son of God, lived and walked and taught and did remarkable things in the midst of these folks in Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin. Their lives, though, somehow went on just as before. Oh, you see, there it is, maybe. This tiny little geographic area occupied by very ordinary people, very much like you and me, remained small and ordinary after encountering Jesus. How is that possible? Well, how about us? Have we embraced Jesus, embraced, that is, his teaching, the teaching we spent so much time reflecting on in the Sermon on the Mount, for instance? Have his mighty deeds of healing, calming storms, freeing people tormented by demons, has all that pierced our hearts, freed us from fear? I'll bet that most of us listening right now occupy, let's face it, pretty ordinary spaces in the world, live pretty ordinary lives. But friends, the encounter with Jesus promises to do extraordinary things in us and through us. Can you see that? Do you have a sense of it in your life? What is the extraordinary that Jesus has brought into your life? Lord Jesus Christ, thank you, praise you for revealing to us your beautiful teaching about the kingdom of God through your teaching, through your powerful deeds. Lord Jesus, forgive me for all the ways that I have resisted. I can look at these cities who you are reproaching in the Gospel today and say, what was the matter with them? But what about me? Forgive me, Jesus, for the ways I have resisted your word, for my own lack of embracing and living your kingdom way. Jesus, reveal to me your love for me, that you have made yourself so small that you are present to me right where I am, that I am not too small and too insignificant for you. And help me in seeing this, to encounter your beauty, the wonder that the divine Son of God is in my midst, is present to me. Lord Jesus, touch my ordinary life with your extraordinary grace and love, mercy, power. Oh friends, thank you so much. What a joy to share the Gospel.