Friday in the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle I
Bar 1,15-22; Lk 10, 13-16.
Sometimes we just need something to bring us back to our senses again. Many times, this happens when we hit rock bottom. When there is no further down that we can go, we seem to open our eyes and start looking for alternatives. Many people have started praying again because they hit rock bottom: because of an illness that they have passed through or a death in their family.
One particular person often tells me how her own illness helped her return to her faith which she had received as a child but that she had long neglected. She realised that the knowledge and abilities of her doctors and of medicine was limited and that she had no other option then to turn to God. she admits that she was embarrassed to do so initially - how could she turn to a God she had denied for so many years? But this friend of mine recalls how it was an opportunity for her to deepen her relationship with God and with her close family members.
Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom even in our sin. Like the Prodigal Son. It was only when he ended up penniless and famished that he finally decided to return home. Here again, our initial reason might not be authentic contrition, but perhaps an egoistic desire to get rid of the guilt and disharmony in our hearts and in our relationships.
However in both of these cases and in many more examples that you can come up with in your own experiences, there is Christ's invitation even in hitting rock bottom. Jesus does not really care whether we turn to him because we really desire him or because we want to be healed physically or to get rid of our guilt.
Take the case of the Israelites taken into captivity in Babylon. It was only then that they realised that they had sinned against God and disobeyed him. Their exile in Babylon helped them open their eyes and make them conscious of their sin. It was only then that they could turn once again towards God.
Jesus tells the people of Caparnaum as he tells each and every one of us, "If you do not open your eyes now and realise the great things the Lord has done with you, you will go down to the netherworld - you will hit rock bottom - and then you will have no choice than to open your eyes and welcome me, and once you welcome me, you will finally be able to welcome the one who sent me, my Heavenly Father."
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