Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin [USA]
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
When Jesus pronounces woe on Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, we may understand it as a sort of threat. Jesus seems to be saying, “If you unbelieving towns do not change, then I will send fire upon you, just like Sodom and Gomorrah. That’ll teach you to reject me.” Such an interpretation rightly confuses us, though, since in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus rebukes James and John for wanting to send fire down upon a Samaritan town that refuses to welcome Jesus. How do we deal with this apparent contradiction in Jesus’ personality, where he seems willing to destroy some towns but not others?
I suggest that Jesus is not pronouncing a threat but giving a fair warning: “Beware, you will regret rejecting me, once you know who I am.” Yes, the Lord issues a clear invitation to follow him and be set free from sin. No one heard that invitation more clearly than Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where “most of his mighty deeds had been done.” Just imagine on the day of their judgement when the people of these towns stand before the Lord and realize who it was they rejected, the one whom they took merely for a good entertainer or some medicine man. What could be worse than the white-hot regret that will slice through their hearts as they remember their lives of sin in the light of that very open invitation to follow Jesus into freedom? No wonder it will be worse for them than for Sodom, for the people of Sodom did not have the Lord himself performing miracles in their midst.