The Gospel For Tuesday, the 15th week in ordinary time is taken from St. Matthew 11:24. Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. 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.

But I tell you it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, will you be exalted in heaven. You will go down to the nether world. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. When we see someone we love doing something that’s destructive, we do everything we can possibly to get their attention, to see what they’re caught up in.

What we see in Jesus is that kind of temperament. He is really deeply, deeply concerned about these people, and yet he’ll say to them, you’re going to be absolutely destroyed if you don’t change your way of life. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t merciful. It simply means that he is intense in his desire that we change from that which destroys us. Foreign Closing Prayer Father, when we face things in ourselves and in our those that we love and we want to change them, give us patience, but also give us commitment and the wisdom to know how to lead them out of darkness into the light. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.