Zechariah 8:20-23 / Luke 9:51-56
In a generic sense, Christianity can be called a religion. And to describe it, we can call it a religion of love.
Simply because Jesus new commandment to us is to love one another just as He has loved us.
Yet, being a religion of love, the setback is that we may take God for granted and because God is love, we may even abuse His love for us.
But a religion of fear, in which there is reward or punishment, can indeed be more impressive especially when it is manifested by spectacular acts.
The disciples of Jesus had seen Him work miracles. They believe that He had divine powers and stand in awe of Him.
So when Jesus was rejected by the Samaritans, as we heard in the gospel, the disciples James and John wanted to show those Samaritans some spectacular acts and to punish them and put fear into them.
But Jesus showed them once again that He came in love and it will be out of love that people will come to believe in Him.
Jesus has become the Jerusalem of the 1st reading in which peoples and nations come to seek the Lord and entreat His favour.
It is only with love that others will come to us to know more about our faith, because they have seen that the God of love is indeed with us.