THE SIN OF INDIFFERENCE
Chorazin and Bethsaida were a privileged lot. While the Scriptures are silent about the things that Jesus has done to the people of these places, we can presume that such acts were tremendously great. Just read between these lines: “If the deeds of power which happened in you had happened in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago.”
Now think about this privilege, then imagine the wrong that they have done or the good that they failed to do, considering the gravity of their punishment come judgment day: “It would be easier for the land of the men of Sodom” than for those people of Chorazin and Bethsaida. Sodom? We know the infamy of the people of that place. So to say that their fate will be easier than those of the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida, they must have done really something bad.
And what are these people guilty of? The sin of forgetting the responsibilities of privilege — they have been given a lot, been blessed a lot, but they failed to respond to the divine motions initiated by Jesus on them.
It may have really been good that “these cities did not attack Jesus Christ; they did not drive him from their gates; they did not seek to crucify him” (W.Barclay). But unfortunately they also simply dismissed Him. Indifference, too, is a sin, and that is where these people failed. They simply dismissed Jesus who worked so much in their midst. How I wish all of us would learn from this. We have all been touched by God one way or another. Now, if we can only respond to such divine initiative by not being indifferent with Him and returning the favor in a manner that truly befits the goodness we have received from Him.Fr. Sandy V. Enhaynes
REFLECTION QUESTION: Are you also forgetting the responsibilities of privilege, of being blessed a lot without caring for the less privileged?
Lord, touch my heart and make me feel the pain of being less privileged so that I may give out of the blessings You have showered upon me.
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