“BUT IT WILL BE MORE TOLERABLE FOR TYRE AND SIDON AT THE JUDGMENT THAN FOR YOU.” LK 10:13-16
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
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 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.” Lk 10:13-16
Today, Jesus teaches us something we don’t hear in social media, the news, on NETFLIX, in our music, or anywhere in our culture. As Jesus is proclaiming the Kingdom of God, He teaches us there will be judgment, “But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.” We will face our Savior and be judged after we die, this is the hard Truth.
To be fair, we have to hear the Word of God, the Good News, the proclaimed Kingdom Jesus teaches us about in the Scriptures before we are judged. The hard Truth Jesus proclaims today is those who have heard His message of repentance but choose not to and reject Him “will go down to the netherworld”.
A place exists for souls who hear the Good News and reject it. Peter Kreeft calls these souls spiritual garbage. It scares me when so many people get caught up in the culture, stop going to Church, and start creating their own religion or ideas of God. Jesus makes it very clear today that hell exists and there is a consequence for not responding to the Good News.
Part of the reason I write these Gospel reflections is to teach young people they can read the Scriptures, reflect on them in silence, and make the Holy Spirit a reality in their lives. What I mean by that is there is great wisdom to be gained by reflecting on the Word of God the going back and seeing how God has worked in your life. It’s fulfilling, full of grace, and completes my joy that God wants to give me glorifying Him.
The Word of God with the grace of the sacraments and prayer are essential to enter into the Kingdom, but Jesus teaches us today we are called to respond to these Words. May God’s grace give us the courage to live out these Words in our everyday life and pass onto the next generation. There are consequences if we do not listen to the Word or if we listen but reject it. Jesus cannot lie, there are everlasting consequences, and heaven and hell exist.
As I read “Imagine Heaven” Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future that Awaits You by John Burke, every person that experiences a near-death event says that the Light, the Presence, is not judging them but just loving them. When they are going through their lives, the Light, keeps putting the thought in their mind “What did you do with your life for me?” Our purpose in life is to worship God. He gave us life, at Baptism, He grafted Himself onto us, He stays with us in the Sacraments and is always present to us in our heart. We are God’s masterpiece, His pride and joy! He loves us so much He died for us!
Our mission from God is to love others after we come to know our identity in Him and this is how we glorify the Father and how He glorifies us. We are called to rest in this secure love and be free to love others in all we do. We judge ourselves and we are hard on ourselves, but God just loves. Ask God for the grace to always remember your identity in Him (seems like I forget each day I wake) and come to know His love for us, so that we can fulfill our mission of glorifying Him through the way we treat others.
Judgment day is about going through your life with the Lord and seeing how you loved. I have a lot of work to do!
Today’s challenge: Take time in silence today to really allow Jesus’s words to sink in. Take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what you can do to bring yourself closer to Jesus with His grace in the sacraments, reflecting in silence on Scripture, spending time with Him in adoration, dedicating yourself more fully to Mary and Joseph, and responding to the Father who is madly in love with His creation
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
Recent Comments