The gospel for Friday of the 26th week in Ordinary Time is taken from Luke 10th chapter 13, 16th verse. Jesus said 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 sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven.

You will go down to the netherworld. Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. It’s clear in this passage that Jesus has come into the world to reveal who the Father is. And when you reject his teachings, you’re rejecting who the Father is. And his frustration, his anger over that is especially true in this situation because he lived in Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida were also places where he preached very, very often.

And yet they were so stiff necked and so resistant. So his resistance is a great source of pain because he knows what it’s going to cost them to reject his message. Foreign Father, to feel that we know you, that we know enough to make sure that we are going to receive the reward of another life with you is never enough. Bless us with great curiosity, great openness to all that you are, all that you want us to see and to live. That’s our responsibility, that’s what God longs for. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.