06 October. Friday, Week 26
Saint Bruno, priest (opt mem.)
1st Reading: Baruch 1:15-22
From our time in Egypt until now, we have disregarded the voice of the Lord
The Lord our God is in the right, but there is open shame on us today, on the people of Judah, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on our kings, our rulers, our priests, our prophets, and our ancestors, because we have sinned before the Lord. We have disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord that he set before us.
From the time when the Lord brought our ancestors out of the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and we have been negligent, in not heeding his voice. So to this day there have clung to us the calamities and the curse that the Lord declared through his servant Moses at the time when he brought our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, to give to us a land flowing with milk and honey. We did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of the prophets whom he sent to us, but all of us followed the intent of our own wicked hearts by serving other gods and doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.
Gospel: Luke 10:13-16
Tyre and Sidon would have repented, had they seen the miracles done by Jesus
Jesus said: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
Hope, in face of apparent failure
Today’s words from Baruch date to the Babylonian exile (587-539 B.C.), and the context for his sermon was the autumnal feast of Tabernacles. A collection was being taken up, to be sent to Jerusalem for temple sacrifices and to help the poor in the holy city. The feast of Tabernacles was originally a week of great rejoicing. During the exile, however, and in the postexilic period, the joy was tinged with sorrow, for the contrast between what the feast celebrated and the harsh reality of life. In Ezra’s day the people needed to be encouraged, “Do not be sad this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength” (Neh 8:9-10). Baruch insists that their present sorrow is the people’s fault, not God’s. “We have disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God.” Yet the same merciful God of the exodus is with us today. What they need is to repent, to reform, to set their faces towards good inspirations and yes, most of all to have hope.
We too tend to question God’s wisdom, the ways of Providence in our own lives. Yet God’s word reminds us how much we belong to God’s family. Like Moses in the desert, we have experienced the goodness, even the miracles of God. In the gospel, Jesus reminds us again of God’s power and holds out to us the prospect of a better life, transformed by his presence.
Appreciating his presence
Our Lord laments the fact that the people of the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida did not appreciate all that he had done among them. They were indifferent to the God’s gracious works in their midst, and were not in any way moved by them to turn to a better life. We too can sometimes miss the signs of God’s grace among us. Grace might take the form of an unexpected kindness shown to us, an invitation we receive that we had not expected, a word of appreciation or support at a time when it was needed, a positive and willing response to a request that we’ve made.
The Lord comes to us especially in and through his followers, in and through each other in the church. As he says in today’s gospel, “Anyone who listens to you listens to me.” We don’t always recognize the ways in which the Lord touches our lives. We don’t always notice the Lord passing by and gracing us in different ways. At the end of our day, it can be good to look back over that day and to notice where and how the Lord has been gracing us with his presence, and then to quietly give thanks for that.