Mt 11,20-24 – Tuesday of the XV Week of Ordinary Time
«Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! The words that Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel are among the harshest. But behind this harshness there is not the anger of those who want to punish, but rather the pain of those who loved, donated, performed signs and has not seen any change arise.
We could easily be Chorazin or Bethsaida. Because the meaning of this reproach could sound like this: woe to you, after everything you have received, if you continue to live as if nothing had happened. Woe to you if, after all the times in which you have been saved, forgiven, raised up, consoled, you have not taken advantage of that good to change something in your life, to cling to the hand of God, to finally make a decision worth living for. The real drama of Chorazin and Bethsaida is not having committed who knows what sins. It is having remained indifferent in the face of grace. They saw miracles, but they did not allow those miracles to become conversion. And this is perhaps the greatest risk for us too: getting used to goodness to the point of no longer recognizing it as a gift. When we consider everything we have received simply as a right, we stop feeling gratitude. And without gratitude no change comes.
Gratitude, in fact, does not simply consist of saying thank you, but of doing something good with the good we have received. Today’s Gospel reminds us then that our life is not neutral. The occasions, the meetings, the graces, even the trials we have gone through give us a responsibility. Sooner or later we have to ask ourselves what we have done with what we have been entrusted with. It’s not about living in fear of punishment, but in the seriousness of freedom. God loves us freely, but his love demands a response. True sin is not just doing evil. It is also wasting the good. St. Camillus, whom we remember today, was a masterpiece of charity, that is, he was a masterpiece of those who took advantage of his conversion to organize good in a heroic way, especially in favor of the most abandoned sick.
