Homily for Friday 5th October 2018
_“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” * Luke 10:13*
When miracles happen, there is always an air of excitement around us. Miracles assure our weak minds that God is still on the throne, that He truly cares us and that there is nothing He cannot do. The Christian Faith as a whole is founded on just one miracle; the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead just as He had said would happen. Miracles help to deepen our faith in God. Miracles assure us of God’s presence in our lives and give a great boost even to our prayer life.
Nonetheless, as beautiful as every miracle may be, there is nothing that pleases God more than our willingness to repent. Considering the tone of Jesus in today’s Gospel passage, we can see that in the mind of God, the purpose of every miracle is to bring about repentance from sin and a complete change of heart.
This is why Jesus was not happy with the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Jesus worked mighty words in these towns expecting that when they see these works, the people would repent like the people of Nineveh when Jonah preached to them. Unfortunately, the people were only interested in benefiting from the mighty works rather than offering their lives to Jesus. I think it is in our human character to collect and receive from others and never bother to give back! Very sad!
If a miracle is able to ignite your faith, then your faith must manifest itself by repentance. Knowing that God is close enough to answer your prayer and make the impossible happen implies knowing that God is close enough to be disappointed when you do not live up His expectation. Someone once said: “if there is a mouth to pray, then there is God to answer.” Truly, the complete statement should include: “if there is God to answer, then there must be a person to worship God by good deeds.”
Indeed, when we think of miracle, our minds usually go to things like the dead being raised to life, the sick receiving healing, a person getting a job suddenly after several failed attempts and so on. There is one miracle we never think about; it is the miracle of repentance. This is the miracle that pleases God, yet this is one miracle that only requires your will. When we pray, we ask God to do the impossible on our behalf yet we fail to do the impossible for God which is to repent.
Some of us have lied to ourselves that we can never repent or change our bad habits and sinful behaviours; we have lost faith in the possibility of becoming saints, yet day and night, we pray to God for miracles forgetting that we ourselves are the very miracles God is looking for. We live in an age of miracle-centres, solution arenas, last-bus-stop ministries and so on yet our society has never been so morally bankrupt. We are clearly a picture of Chrorazin and Bethsaida and if we fail to repent and change, it shall be more tolerable with Sodom than it would be for us on the day of judgement.
Let us
pray: Lord Jesus, may I not think only of what I am getting from you but of
what I am giving to you. Amen.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Friday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study: Job 38:1.12-21; 40:3-5, Psalm 139:1-14 and Luke 10:13-16).
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