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A reading from the Gospel of Luke

 Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

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We do not know who the Galileans mentioned in our reading are, there is no record of them. What we can say is these people were treated very unfairly by Pilate. It would appear they were punished for some sort of sin.

We also hear of a tower falling on 18 people and killing them. A similar thing happened last week when half of Didcot Power station collapsed. No one would say this happened because God wanted to punish those who were killed or injured.

God is our heavenly Father. When we sin, we distance ourselves from God, but he wants us to want to be close to him again.

Think of the times your parents have been angry with you. This could range from being a but annoyed that you’ve managed to take a plate, heavy with food into the sitting room to have a snack while watching TV, but that same plate can be so heavy to take back to the kitchen. Or they might be angry and upset because you have disobeyed them, or they have had a phone call from a teacher because you have let yourself down in school.

But just as you want everything to be alright between you and your parents, your parents want the same. It’s the same with God, he wants us to want a relationship with him.

Jesus is telling the people in the Gospel story they must repent. This means we must acknowledge our sins and make reparation for them

To give you an example; imagine you are in the canteen and you’re mucking about with a friend in the queue. This continues after you’ve been served and your lunch gets spilt all over the floor, you can’t eat it.

Because it’s one of your friends this happens with, you forgive them for what has happened, but that won’t feed you, it won’t bring your lunch back. So to make full reparation it should be your friend who buys your lunch. If they do, everything between you will be ok. If they don’t, they have let themselves down.

We all have those times when we let ourselves down, during the Stations of the Cross Jesus falls three times. It’s probable there are only three falls in the Stations of the Cross because the journey was so short.

When we go to Confession, we seek to repair the damage we have done between ourselves and God. We seek God’s forgiveness, but this means we must also be forgiving, as well as seeking mercy, we must also be merciful.

Take a moment to think, for what do you wish to be forgiven……

 

Our closing prayer for this week