Thinking about Capernaum
Capernaum was Jesus’ town. The ruins pictured above were the great synagogue where Our Lord preached. It’s here where five of the twelve apostles lived: Peter, Andrew, John, James, and Matthew. Jesus’ town was the site of numerous miracles, among them the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead and the healing of the hemorrhaging woman by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak. It was in Capernaum where the Roman Centurion’s understanding of Jesus’ power and authority caused Jesus to declare, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith in all of Israel!”
The Capernaum synagogue was constructed of white limestone, in marked contrast to the buildings surrounding it. It was a beautiful building, the pride and joy of the community. All in all, Capernaum was one of those places artists and poets dream of discovering…
And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations; The people who sat in darkness saw great light, and to them who sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up (Mt. 4:13–16)….
“As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth [partakes of] me, even he shall live by me” (Jn. 6:57). Sadly, His hearers would not respond positively to His works or words. “This is an hard saying,” they declared. “Who can hear it?” (Jn. 6:60). Later, even many who had professed to be His disciples would walk “no more with him” (Jn. 6:66).
Why am I thinking about Capernaum?
Because of last Tuesday’s Gospel reading.
Woe onto you.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon….
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you, it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
We Christians and Christian Catholics comfortably dilute Jesus’ message as one of love and mercy by closing our eyes to his own words,
Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother…Gospel of Matthew
And so glibly proclaiming that we and our loved ones are in or will go to Heaven. When doing this, we ignore the other pillar of Christianity, God’s Justice and Judgment.
While watching torrential rain from my back patio at noon on the now infamous Texas Hill Country Friday, July 4th, all I could think of was the Wrath of God. The volume and velocity of the rain caused literal rivers to appear on both sides of our house. The one at the base of the hill to the south of our property widened second by second. A deer appeared in the trees above the ever-widening furious river and seemed to look at us for help.
But we were powerless.
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus reproaches the unrepentant towns where he performed most of his mighty deeds. The idea of Jesus as judge is one with which we are distinctly uncomfortable, yet even the most cursory reading of the New Testament reveals its unavoidability. Indeed, it has been said that in front of every church there ought to be a statue of the compassionate Jesus and a statue of Christ in full flight of fury, since both are indisputably present in the Gospel stories.
The point is that when God’s own ordo appears in the world, he necessarily judges the disorder that surrounds him. To judge, in the biblical sense of the term, means to bring into the light, to throw into sharp relief. When good and evil are confused or intermingled, divine judgment separates them, clarifying the issue.
By his very nature, in his every word and gesture, in the very way that he stood, Jesus, God’s Word, was a judge. He was the light of the world, harshly exposing that which would prefer to remain in the dark; he was the unadulterated criterion, the truth in the presence of which falsity necessarily appeared for what it was. Bishop Barron: Daily Gospel Reflection
We were spared
the horror if those camping on the Guadalupe that weekend. And that unwarranted mercy compels my somber reading of Janet Klasson’s post. I am reposting it here in its entirety because it contains valuable information.
I pray that I and each one of us can assimilate this phrase into our being:
Hate evil in a divine way.
By Janet Klasson on July 13, 2025 Luke 10:1-3
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
We heard in this Gospel reading from Sunday, July 6, 2025 that Jesus sent the 70 disciples out in pairs to prepare the way for him, to heal the sick and cast out demons in his name. He said he was sending them out like lambs in the midst of wolves. Having been a Franciscan penitent for almost 20 years, the wolf reference immediately reminded me of the story of St. Francis who confronted the wolf of Gubbio and, in effect, converted the beast who had been viciously terrorizing the townsfolk.
From The Little Flowers of St. Francis: Of the Most Holy Miracle of St Francis in Taming the Fierce Wolf of Gubbio
At the time when St Francis was living in the city of Gubbio, a large wolf appeared in the neighbourhood, so terrible and so fierce, that he not only devoured other animals, but made a prey of men also; and since he often approached the town, all the people were in great alarm, and used to go about armed, as if going to battle. Notwithstanding these precautions, if any of the inhabitants ever met him alone, he was sure to be devoured, as all defence was useless: and, through fear of the wolf, they dared not go beyond the city walls. St Francis, feeling great compassion for the people of Gubbio, resolved to go and meet the wolf, though all advised him not to do so.
Making the sign of the holy cross, and putting all his confidence in God, he went forth from the city, taking his brethren with him; but these fearing to go any further, St Francis bent his steps alone toward the spot where the wolf was known to be, while many people followed at a distance, and witnessed the miracle. The wolf, seeing all this multitude, ran towards St Francis with his jaws wide open.
As he approached, the saint, making the sign of the cross, cried out: “Come hither, brother wolf; I command thee, in the name of Christ, neither to harm me nor anybody else.” Marvellous to tell, no sooner had St Francis made the sign of the cross, than the terrible wolf, closing his jaws, stopped running, and coming up to St Francis, lay down at his feet as meekly as a lamb. And the saint thus addressed him: “Brother wolf, thou hast done much evil in this land, destroying and killing the creatures of God without his permission; yea, not animals only hast thou destroyed, but thou hast even dared to devour men, made after the image of God; for which thing thou art worthy of being hanged like a robber and a murderer. All men cry out against thee, the dogs pursue thee, and all the inhabitants of this city are thy enemies; but I will make peace between them and thee, O brother wolf, if so be thou no more offend them, and they shall forgive thee all thy past offences, and neither men nor dogs shall pursue thee any more.”
Having listened to these words, the wolf bowed his head, and, by the movements of his body, his tail, and his eyes, made signs that he agreed to what St Francis said. On this St Francis added: “As thou art willing to make this peace, I promise thee that thou shalt be fed every day by the inhabitants of this land so long as thou shalt live among them; thou shalt no longer suffer hunger, as it is hunger which has made thee do so much evil; but if I obtain all this for thee, thou must promise, on thy side, never again to attack any animal or any human being; dost thou make this promise?”
Then the wolf, bowing his head, made a sign that he consented. Said St Francis again: “Brother wolf, wilt thou pledge thy faith that I may trust to this thy promise?” and putting out his hand he received the pledge of the wolf; for the latter lifted up his paw and placed it familiarly in the hand of St Francis, giving him thereby the only pledge which was in his power. Then said St Francis, addressing him again: “Brother wolf, I command thee, in the name of Christ, to follow me immediately, without hesitation or doubting, that we may go together to ratify this peace which we have concluded in the name of God”; and the wolf, obeying him, walked by his side as meekly as a lamb, to the great astonishment of all the people.
Now, the news of this most wonderful miracle spreading quickly through the town, all the inhabitants, both men and women, small and great, young and old, flocked to the market-place to see St Francis and the wolf. All the people being assembled, the saint got up to preach… (Brother Ugolino,The Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi,Part I, Chapter XXI – earliest manuscript year 1390) https://ccel.org/ccel/ugolino/flowers/flowers* I
In the gospel reading, Jesus did not tell the disciples to avoid the wolves, run from the wolves, or even fight the wolves. He put them in the midst of those wolves in human clothing, to convert them in the power of his holy name, driving out demons and bringing peace to their souls so that they could walk by Our Lord’s side as meekly as lambs.
This, dear friends, is the end game of salvation history—the conversion of even the greatest sinners. The world is full of wolves, arguably never more of them and never more in need of conversion than in our time. In the writings of Luisa, particularly the Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion, we are made starkly aware of the unfathomable depth of sorrow that Jesus and Mary experience at the loss of the souls who reject the free gift of redemption – of having had their debt paid in full at an inconceivably high cost by Jesus, with the full consent and cooperation of His Mother.
In the pattern of the 70 disciples and the faithful St. Francis, we too are called as his disciples—in the Divine Will—to convert wolves in all times and places, not through clever words or convincing arguments, not by being more loud and abrasive than they are, but through meekness, courage, the Holy Name of Jesus, and the Sign of the Cross, most especially in the Hours of the Passion.
We do it by living the Fiat, seeking the lost in all times and places in the pattern of Jesus, Mary, and Luisa who spared nothing of themselves so that all might be saved and, like them, by loving the wolves as much as we love the lambs, hating evil in a Divine way as Jesus explains in the following passage: Volume 12, April 8, 1918 [Jesus to Luisa:]
Have you seen what living in my Will is? It is to disappear and to enter the sphere of Eternity; it is to penetrate into the Omnipotence of the Eternal One – into the Uncreated Mind, and take part in everything and in each Divine act, as much as it is possible for a creature. It is to make use, even while on earth, of all the Divine qualities; it is to hate evil in a Divine way. It is extending oneself to everyone without exhaustion, because the Will which animates this creature is Divine. (L. Piccarreta, Volume 12, April 8, 1918)
To hate evil in a Divine way is to see our fellow sinners as God sees them, as the innocent babes he created them to be, now corrupted by all the evil influences of this fallen world, wallowing in the stench of the human will (see prayer below). Well do we know that we are all sinners, that if not for the prayers of others, we ourselves might also have become hardened in sin. There, but for the grace of God, go we. Instead, by God’s unfathomable mercy, we have been offered the Gift of Living in the Divine Will, not for our own sake, but so that the most souls possible might be saved. Our sacrifices, prayers, acts and rounds in the Divine Will are critical to this mission of the harvest of souls. It is a mission in the exile for all in the exile, as God wills.
Of course, we know that not all will be saved. But God does not give up as we see in this excerpt in which Jesus tells Luisa that the moment of death is their daily catch: Volume 35, March 22, 1938 [Jesus to Luisa:]
“Our Goodness and Our Love are such that We use all the ways and all the means to pull him away from sin—to save him; and if We do not succeed during his life, We make the last Surprise of Love at the moment of his death. You must know that, in that moment, We give the last sign of Love to the creature, providing her with our Graces, Love and Goodness, and placing so many Tendernesses of Love as to soften and win the hardest hearts. When the creature finds herself between life and death—between the time that is about to end, and the Eternity that is about to begin—almost in the act of leaving her body, I, your Jesus, make Myself seen, with an Amiability that Enraptures, with a Sweetness that chains and sweetens the bitterness of life, especially in that extreme moment.
Then, with My Gaze, I look at her, but with so much Love as to pull from her an act of contrition—one act of Love, one adhesion to My Will. “In that moment of disillusion, in seeing—in touching with her hands how much We Loved her, and do Love her, the creature feels so much pain that she repents for not having loved Us; she recognizes Our Will as Principle and Completion of her life and, as satisfaction, she accepts her death, to accomplish one act of Our Will. In fact, you must know that if the creature did not do even one Act of the Will of God, the doors of Heaven would not be opened; she would not be recognized as Heiress of the Celestial Fatherland, and the Angels and the Saints could not admit her in their midst—nor would she want to enter, being aware that it does not belong to her. Without Our Will there is no Sanctity and no Salvation. How many are saved by virtue of this sign of Our Love, with the exception of the most perverted and obstinate; although even following the long path of Purgatory would be more convenient for them. The moment of death is Our Daily Catch—the finding of the lost man.” (L. Piccarreta, Volume 35, March 22, 1938)
So, Jesus is giving us our assignment, sending us ahead of him as he sent the 70 disciples, to prepare hearts for the greatest harvest of souls ever imagined. But he also cautions us that he is sending us out like lambs in the midst of wolves. The difference is that we are lambs living in the Divine Will! Like St. Francis of Assisi, we are being called not just to save the lambs but to convert the wolves as well in the power of the Fiat! Come Divine Will, let us save souls with your love! Fiat! (* https://ccel.org/ is the home page of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, a huge collection of Christian classics in the public domain, all available for free download.)
Prayer to Jesus, Restorer of lost innocence Beloved Jesus, Restorer of lost innocence, I love you, I praise you, and I thank you for redoing our lives during your agony in the Garden, and for consummating your love for us on the Cross. Making your agony my own, I redo all lives in the Divine Will as if no one had ever sinned or been sinned against.
Fused into you, in the name of all, I give you a return of the Divine Love with which you fashioned Adam innocent in the Garden of Eden and with which you suffered for all in the Garden of Gethsemane. With Mary and Luisa, I want to repair you for all sins against innocence and every rejection of your free gift of salvation. I empty the Heavenly Treasury into the Stream of Need an infinitude of times, pouring the Divine Will into every human heart. Let us save souls with your Love!
Holy Spirit of Love may your kingdom come and come quickly. Amen.
