“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus reproaches the towns where he had performed many miracles, including raising Jairus’s daughter from the dead. The people of the town had not repented, so Jesus says to them: “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.”
Help me understand, God, the mighty deeds you are capable of doing. Even before your son’s resurrection, you showed your power over life and death. What other forces are in your hands—life itself, natural forces, and all you created! Jesus’ frustration among the people who witnessed his miracles is clear in the “woes” he utters. What he said to Chorazin and Bethsaida, he says today: repent, turn back. From Greek, we have the word metanoia, “a transformative change of heart especially: a spiritual conversion.” God says the same in the first reading from Isaiah: “Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm!” How clear is that?
Here I am, Lord. I know it is not enough to simply be in your presence and keep it to myself. Yet, in the midst of the day, my mind whirling with inchoate thoughts of what I might do, need to do, and would like to do, it is enough for me to turn back to you even for a moment. I ask for the grace to return to you from time to time throughout the day, even to say, “Be with me.”
When I hear words like repent and zeal, I can’t help thinking of televangelist I would occasionally stumble across while watching TV as a teenager. Let me just say that to me their zeal was not contagious. It takes time to detach such key elements of faith from their stereotypical, histrionic representation. But if I consider Jesus’ reproach (Jesus, who has power over life and death) and my response to this with eyes glazed over, I can only ask for God’s grace to be in awe of his mighty deeds and to know again and again a change of heart.