REFLECTIONS TODAY

Many Jews in Jesus’ time thought that the return of God’s reign would involve the establishment of righteousness and the overthrow of the oppressors. Thus, the awaited Messiah would remove the Roman yoke upon their shoulders. When Jesus — and John the Baptist before him — call for a change of heart (Greek metanoia) to welcome the reign of God, many of their religious leaders do not give them high regard. 

John, according to them, looks like he is possessed by a demon: he stays in the wilderness, wears strange clothing, has “exotic” diet, and cries out like a mad man. Jesus, who is more “sociable,” is not acceptable to them either: he likes to eat with people, thus behaving like a glutton and drunkard, and, worse, associates with tax collectors and sinners. How then can they accept Jesus and John as men sent from God?

Jesus likens his detractors to petulant children who would not join their companions to a play-acting — a funeral or a dance. They consider John as too serious and Jesus as not serious enough. They do not like to participate in the ongoing manifestation of God’s reign through a call to repentance and to rejoicing. They would rather sit comfortably on the sidelines as spectators. They are missing the time of their life, the time of salvation.
 

First Reading • Is 48:17-19 

Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. 
If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea; your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, their name never cut off/ or blotted out from my presence.

Gospel • Matthew 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ 

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ 

The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by his works.”

Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.