Fr Paul takes a moment to thank God and to express his gratitude to everyone for their care and support over recent weeks since his diagnosis and surgery.  He then reads from the Gospel from Matthew (11: 20-24).

Fr Paul says, first and foremost, with today’s Gospel we need to keep in mind and understand right from the very first sentence of the Gospel: Jesus began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked because they refused to repent.

One of the sadnesses of the first Christian generation was the failure of the Jews and the people to respond to the Messiah, Jesus.  He has worked all these miracles in these towns and, yet, they refuse to repent. The tragic fulfilment of Jesus’s words are starkly illustrated by the ruins of the two villages, Chorazin and Bethsaida. Both ruins are located on the north coast of the Lake of Galilee. The most chilling judgement in the Gospel is reserved for Capernaum, it was to be thrown down into hell. Jesus worked many miracles in these three places and yet they failed to respond to the Divine presence among them.

God is part of our life each and every day and for our reflection, Fr Paul invites us to consider, ‘How do I respond to God?