If you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all…

Today, we see another side of Jesus in the Gospel. Often we see Him as the miracle worker, curing the sick, raising the dead. But not today. Now we see the flip side of these miracles: Christ demands a response from the people who have witnessed them. It’s not enough that people stare in wonderment at Our Lord’s mighty deeds. Christ demands a response. And when He doesn’t see any response, what is He doing? He rebukes those in the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida because He loves them and He sees that they continue to hold on to their earthly lives even though He has brought them the Gospel and performed many mighty deeds.

This action of Jesus could at first be perceived as an emotional outburst of anger. But that’s the key distinction. Jesus didn’t rebuke them strongly because He was mad and lost control. Rather, He rebuked them because they needed that rebuke to change.

You know… At times we change our lives and overcome what is wrong as a result of the gentle invitation of Jesus to grace. But, at other times, when evil or sin is deep, we need a holy rebuke. In this case we should hear words of the truth from someone who is our friend. This is what we commonly refer to as “tough love”. To receive such tough love is not easy, and to offer someone such tough love is not easy either, because today’s man is very sensitive to his freedom, free will & decisions.

What the truth has God prepared for us today? What does He want to tell us today through these two readings?

Look… The last line of today’s first reading is very thought-provoking. God tells us: ‘if you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all’. Although the prophet was addressing this prophecy to Ahaz, the king of Judah, at a time of national crisis, these words are addressing to all of us as well.

I think that these words of Isaiah to Ahaz are echo in the words of Psalm 127 which says: ‘Unless the Lord builds the house / those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city / the guard keeps watch in vain’.

Do you know who I am thinking of now? I’m thinking about all our brothers & sisters who are believers, who are thinking about themselves – I’m a Catholic – and still scared to come to church, to join the Mass because of coronavirus.

You know, maybe I’m wrong… but on the one hand there is a voice of this world which tells everybody: stay at home! Don’t go to the church! Be safe!!! But on the other hand God says: ‘if you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all’.

I’m thinking about our brothers & sisters in faith who have been members of our Church at the very beginning of it. Because they trusted in God, they believed Him, these brothers & sisters were ready to die for God. And as you know, many of them died because of their faith.

And today many of our brothers & sisters are scared to come to Church to meet God because somebody told them not to come. Maybe I’m wrong but something here smells badly.

This comment I just made above would be very stupid and injustice if we didn’t do everything what possible to protect all of us against coronavirus during Mass. But – as you can see – we really do everything what possible to protect us all. Don’t we? What can we do more?!?

What kind of quality has faith of those who are scared to come because of covid-19? To whom do they trust? Sorry about my words but this is exactly this “tough love” Jesus has shown to Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.

When we are discussing about the richness of today’s Church, we often say that today’s Church should be poor and humble, just like the Church from The Book of Acts. You know – And none of them would say that his property was his, but everything they had was common. But… when we are discussing about the quality of faith of today’s Catholics, we are not happy to compare ourselves to the brothers & sisters from The Book of Acts. Because our faith is so weak & their was so strong.

Anyway… We all can be tempted to go through this life alone, failing to recognize our dependence on the Lord for everything. Meanwhile Jesus wishes to stand by us, but he needs us to stand by him, if we are to flourish in the way he desires for us. He desires our trust in Him. And what is our response on Sunday? Empty pews… and fear.

We very often like to think of ourselves as being in control, as having everything under control. Yet, the reality is that in so many ways we are not in control. So much happens to us over which we have no control. For example, we cannot control how people respond to us. We can offer someone the gift of friendship, but we have no control over whether or not such person will accept that gift. Even Jesus had no control over how other people responded to Him. He brought people the gift of God’s presence but not everyone accepted that gift, not everyone recognized Jesus as God visiting his people.

I want to say – to all of you who are here this morning – thank you so much for your courage! You are my heroes, You are Christ’s heroes because you have overcome your fear of covid-pandemic and you are here today with your God. Thanks for your testimony that you trust in God more than this mad world. God will never forget it!

Instead of ‘stay at home‘, I want to say: stay trust your God and never give up!