We're all very comfortable talking about a God who is loving and merciful, who forgives our sins and who longs for us to be united with Him in heaven. That's a very comfortable kind of a God for us to have in mind. In fact, we can get so comfortable with that aspect of God's character that we gloss over-- even ignore-- the reality that God wants something from us. God wants us to love Him, which means honoring His commands, which requires us to change, to "repent" as Jesus makes clear in today's Gospel (Mt 11: 20-24). We have to work on changing our ways, on conforming our will to the will of God, on being the followers of Christ that we are called to be. We can make those changes with the help of God's grace, for which we need to constantly ask. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that there are consequences to failing to repent. As merciful as God is, there is still the idea of judgment that we can't ignore. Jesus says that the judgment for those who have seen His mightly deeds and not repented will more difficult-- less tolerable-- than was the judgment imposed on the land of Sodom. Tough stuff, right? We all know about the fire and brimstone that consumed Sodom and Gommorah. So let's resist the urges to ignore this part of Jesus' message. Let's remember that, merciful as God is, there are consequences to ignoring Jesus and His "mighty deeds." The next time we're tempted to give in to the dark side, and simply throw ourselves on God's mercy, we might remember that. A little reminder of "fire and brimstone" isn't necessarily a bad thing.