WHO EVER REJECTS YOU REJECTS ME

Luke 10: 13-16

Jesus said, "Alas for you Chorazin! Alas for you Bethsaida! So many miracles have been worked in you! If the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have already be siiting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better than for you on the Judgment Day. And what of you, city of Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to heaven? You will thrown down to the place of the dead.

"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me."

PRAYER AND REFLECTION

Abbas Deus , commodo indulgeo meus sinful mos ut can motum fides vestri populus.

How we conduct our lives reflects the "God in Us". When we do good to others, they praise the Lord knowing that we are His chosen servants but when they witness that we do not live our talk, they tend to loose faith in God.

A fellow servant of mine in the church said that she was able to talk with a parishioner who owns a beauty parlor in the village. She does not hear mass in our church and she goes all the way to the Redemptorist Church in Baclaran in order to do so. She does this out of frustration and disappoinment to those whom she knew as active servants of the church. They usually hang-out at her parlor after doing church service and she had personally witnessed how they argue, quarrel and talk of gossips.

Some few years back in another instance, I happened to bumped into a former church youth coordinator from another parish. According to him, he left the church because he was molested by their priest. His faith was greatly shaken to the point the he fell outside God's grace.
As servants of the Lord, we are bearers of God's presence in the lives of other people. We are the examples, ambassadors or witnesses of His Love and if we ourselves fail to conduct our lives in accordance with people's expectations, their relationship with God is greatly placed at stake. Instead of evangelizers, our acts may even be the obstacles why one does not want to be a worker in the Lord's vineyard.

I remember a story about a servant who is about to commit a sin. He knows very well that what he will do is against God's will in his life but because of his addictiveness to such sinful habit, he still decided to give in to the temptation. While riding a taxi, the driver who happened to be a pastor started to open up a conversation on how the apostle Paul struggled to do good. This was a clear sign that an angel was sent to this servant on a final attempt to change his mind but his determination still led him to sin. In the process, he has not only placed his reputation at risk but moreover the God in him.

We are all vulnerable to this type of temptation and we really need God's strong presence in our lives. Let us all pray that we may not be put to such a test.