Wounded Love!

Friday, October 3, 2025

Bar 1:15-22; Lk 10: 13-16

Today’s Gospel highlights the wounded love of Jesus through his grief and anger. 

Jesus is disappointed with the towns that resisted his constant call for repentance through mighty and miraculous deeds. Though Jesus intended the miracles as signs to awaken their consciences, the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida closed their hearts to the Lord’s initiatives. 

In his disappointment and frustration, Jesus compares them to Tyre and Sidon, the two pagan cities, to emphasize that even the pagans would have responded to his efforts if the same were done in their midst.

What was actually the problem with the unrepentant towns? They commit the sin of indifference. Jesus saw that their consciences were growing dull and unresponsive. They were getting so comfortable that they could not see the need to repent. As a result, though they listened to Jesus, they believed they could continue without transformation.

Jesus condemns such complacence through his anger and frustration. We have heard that ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’ But it is also true that ‘Familiarity breeds trust.’ In the instance of Chorazin and Bethsaida, they neither outrightly rejected Jesus’ message nor warmly responded to it. 

Instead, they were lukewarm and undecided. They were indifferent and passive. 

But they forgot that silence in the face of grace is already a form of rejection.

Let us pray that we may ever move towards the Light of Jesus through our generous response.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar