Our site uses cookies to improve the user experience and we recommend accepting its use to take full advantage of the navigation

Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Download
Gospel text (Lk 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 already be sitting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better than for you on the Judgment Day (…)».

Respect of the sacred

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the Western world —particularly Europe— should perhaps deserve the same grief and sorrow Christ showed toward the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida… We have societies that, having known the works of Jesus Christ, do not recognize Him anymore and have even lost the sense and respect of the sacred.

For the coexistence of cultures respect for that which another group holds sacred is essential, (which one can reasonably expect to find even among those who are not willing to believe in God). When this respect is violated in a society, something essential is lost. In the European society today, anyone who dishonors the faith of Israel or its great figures must pay a fine. The same holds true for anyone who dishonors the Koran and the convictions of Islam. But when it comes to Jesus Christ and that which is sacred to Christians, freedom of speech becomes the supreme good.

—O Lord, Author of peace, grant our society the right to live a freedom (of expression) always respectful with the honor and dignity of the others.