He turned and rebuked them” Lk 9:55.

When James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven and destroy a Samaritan village whose inhabitants refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus rebuked them for it. Why did the Lord react so harshly to the words of His closest disciples? Because He loved them too much to leave them trapped in a vicious cycle of repeated sin. Jesus wanted them to be free from sin’s power, not just keep apologizing for it. In yesterday’s Gospel, closely linked to today’s, we heard Jesus call his disciples to repent of their desire to exalt themselves over one another. Just imagine these men looking down at the ground in shame, and how the word “I’m sorry” finally comes out when Jesus confronts them directly with their thoughts.

But Jesus wants to accomplish much more with this contrition than “get” his disciples and us, to say “I’m sorry.” He wants to give us more, especially when we fall into repeated sins, for Jesus longs for us to experience freedom. He rebukes James and John precisely because they fall into the same trap as before. This rebuke certainly affected them, but that is exactly what Jesus wanted: He wanted to shake them hard so that their repentance would penetrate deeply to the root and cause of their sin.

Repentance and contrition are not just unpleasant duties to fulfill when we do wrong to someone. They are also an opportunity for change. Jesus wants us to correct our wrong thinking and to allow our wounded hearts to be healed and softened. Sometimes the voice of the Holy Spirit can also rebuke us in the same way that Jesus rebuked James and John. What the Holy Spirit will show us will probably not be very pleasing initially. But if we allow the Lord to reveal what is in our hearts, forgiveness and healing will be able to penetrate much more profoundly than we could have imagined. In Christ, repentance and contrition can genuinely bring us freedom from sin! And to live in this freedom is lovely.