Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me.

Gospel of the Day (Luke 10:13-16)

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

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Reflections:

"Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me"

Just as man's breath passes through the head and goes down into the members to give them life, so the Holy Spirit enters into Christians through Christ. Christ is the head; Christians are the members. There is only one head but many members: one body made up of its head and members. And in this one body there is a single Spirit, who is in the head in his fullness and in the members by participation. Therefore, if there is only one body then there is only one Spirit. Anyone who is not in the body cannot be given life by the Spirit, according to the words of Scripture: «Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him» (Rm 8,9). For anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ is not a member of Christ.

Nothing that has a share in the body is dead; nothing of what is separated from the body is living. It is by faith that we become its members; it is by love that we are given life. By faith we receive unity; by charity we receive life. The sacrament of baptism unites us; the Body and Blood of Christ give us life. Through baptism we become members of the body; through the Body of Christ we have a share in his life.