Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 13, 2021

Matthew 11:20-24

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 to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. 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.”

The Lord Jesus often reproached the people he met.  He rebuked the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the chief priests, who openly opposed him.  He silenced the demons who threatened to speak of him.  He also reproached his followers, as when he pointed out their lack of faith or when he reprimanded Peter for arguing with him concerning his coming Passion.  Here he upbraids towns in which he had spent some time, preaching and working miracles — particularly Capernaum, which had become known as “his own town”.  He reproached them not out of hurt pride, but out of his desire to convert them.  The charges and threats he makes against them are meant to bring the people of these towns to their senses so that they might still be saved.  

Of the three towns he names, we know nothing of what he did or said at Chorazin, a small town on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee.  According to St. John’s Gospel, Bethsaida, also in Galilee, was the hometown of the Apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip.  The Gospels mention that Jesus healed a blind man outside the town on a certain occasion, and that he miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand people at a site near the town. The Lord used the town of Capernaum as his headquarters after he left Nazareth, living at the house Peter and Andrew had there.  We know of many cures which he performed in the town, and of his regular preaching there.  If any town had reason to believe in his Gospel, it was Capernaum.  The Lord does not reproach these towns because they were slow to believe in complex theological propositions, but simply because their inhabitants would not repent from sin.  In the small, relatively quiet fishing towns of Galilee the sins the Lord was calling them from included quarreling, harboring jealousy, pride, selfishness, engaging in gossip, and perhaps fighting.  Only in the big cities would we find murder and adultery, which were more easily concealed there.  Despite the Lord’s preaching and abundant miracles, the people of the Galilean towns would not give up their mostly petty sins.  It was as if the Son of God had not lived among them, as if they did not even know the Law of Moses.  In this way, they reject the Lord and so he warns them of their fate if this continues: “It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.”  Tyre and Sidon, the proud Phoenician towns with their idolatry and licentious living.  The Jews thought of the people who lived there as “dogs” (cf. Matthew 15, 26).  Thus, the Lord compares these Jews to those “dogs”, and not to their benefit.  Similarly, if not worse, he compares Capernaum with Sodom and Gomorrah.  We might wonder how he would speak of the centers of our civilization today, saturated in pornography, practicing abortion and infanticide, with adultery and fornication commonplace.

It is good for us to note the many times in which the Lord Jesus speaks sharply to people and rebukes them.  He does it throughout his Public Life.  He demands not mere compliance with his commandments from his disciples, but holiness.  His warnings to repent and his reproaches sound strong to us, and this is because of the greatness of his desire that all people be saved.  It even comes across as a desperation.  He preaches as though his life depends on it, yet it is our lives that do.  We ought to consider the magnitude of his love so that we can return it and repent from even our least sins.