Our Lady of Mount Carmel 

＊＊＊1st Reading＊＊＊   Ex 2:1–15a

（…….） Now the daughter of Pharaob came down to bathe in the Nile;

her attendants meanwhile walked along the bank. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to fetch it. She opened the basket and saw the child – a boy, and he was crying! She felt sorry for him, for she thought:“This is one of the Hebrew children.” Then the sister of the child said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “

“Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and the girl went to call the mother of the child. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,   “Take the child and nurse him for me and I will pay you.”

So the woman took the child and nursed him and, when the child had grown, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him as her son.And she named him Moses to recall that she had drawn him out of the water. (……)

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

 Mt 11:20–24

Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which he had performed most of his miracles, because the people there did not change their ways,      “Alas for you Chorazin and Bethsaida!If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I assure you, for Tyre and Sidon it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on on the day of judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead!   For if the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would still be there today! But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

 

Reflection gospel：

“PEOPLE DID NOT CHANGE THEIR WAYS.”

In his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Donald Senior remarked that” The deeds of Jesus have the ultimate purpose of revealing the presence of God’s reign and therefore should lead to repentance.” In reference to the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus emphatically denounced the Galilean cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, where he taught and performed miracles. He laments the disbelief of the people, in spite of witnessing the dawning of the kingdom of God. They were resistant and blind to Jesus’ offer of salvation, and unwilling to repent. One could feel the anguish and frustration of Jesus over their response.

What could have prevented them from changing their ways of thinking or transforming their lives? Bernard Lonergan’s understanding of bias offers insights into this question. For him, bias involves the disregard of timely and fruitful ideas. It excludes that which may effect constructive results. If one operates along some form of bias, as in the case of those Jesus criticized, he/she world fail to arrive at an objective treatment of an issue at hand. If we cannot deconstruct or get rid of our biases, we will not be able to reach reasonable and correct judgment of reality or of a situation.