Contempt. It’s painful.

Did someone look down on you? It hurts. A friend suffers when a friend despises him. A parent also suffers when a child hates him. Young people suffer, and older people suffer because of contempt. The Lord Jesus also sustained similarly. In Korozaine, Bethesda performed several miracles and Capernaum, but they did not accept him as their Lord and God. Addressing them, but also for our instruction, he said: “He who listens to you listens to me, and he who despises you despises me.” But whoever despises me despises him who sent me” (Luke 10:16).

Every contempt also offends. He can hurt very deeply. We know the Lord Jesus came out of love to bring the world back to the Father. He showed his love more than once in the mentioned cities with his miracles. Yet, he sighed sadly: “Woe to you, Korozain! Woe to you, Bethesda! For if miracles had happened in Tire and Sidon that happened to you, long ago they would have been in penitent clothes sitting in ashes and repenting” (Luke 10:13).

Why does it hurt? Because love is rejected. Contempt calls forth a just punishment. Whoever denies the Lord Jesus rejects the God who sent him because, according to the old diplomatic law, the ambassador is like the one who sends him. We know that it happens occasionally that whoever insults a diplomat who represents his nation somewhere insults his entire country. So it is with God. Whoever insults the Lord Jesus does not accept his love, despises it, insults and despises the same God in all three Divine Persons.

In your imprudence rashness, under the pressure of crosses and difficulties, you already wished for a miracle to confirm the truth of faith and God’s existence. We know that even if it did happen, it might not work. No benefit will disprove human objections and bring about conversion. We see it in the performance of the Lord Jesus. What did he do? His miracles, healing, resurrections, and feeding in the desert did not convert most Jews. They persisted in their bias towards the Lord Jesus. Faith does not have to be based on miracles, but we are to believe the words of Jesus. The same was true then and today. People indeed saw the Lord Jesus face to face and could touch him. Today, we have the teaching of the Church that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and although he is veiled, we believe in his presence in the sacraments. He says that wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, he is also present among them. Let’s accept the Lord Jesus’s words, listen to them, and not despise his love. Whoever despises the teachings of the Church hates Christ himself because Christ is the same in the Church.

Indeed, children who are ashamed of their father or mother and have no place for them in the house must realize that they are calling down punishment on themselves. The heart of both father and mother can break from the pain. The nature of Christ was pierced on the cross. But let’s ensure that the Golgotha drama and do ​​is not repeated through our actions.