Posted by The WORD in other words by Fr Xene Sanchez SVD – Kinshasa, Congo
Wednesday 24th Week in Ordinary Time
Our Novice Master loved telling stories so much so that after two years we heard some of them repeated several times. An example is the wife who bought blue and green neckties for her husband. To please his wife the husband wore one of them the next day, the blue one. When the wife saw it, instead of
being happy that the husband appreciated her gift she became angry and growled at him: “So you don’t like the green one, ha?”
Life indeed can become miserable by the way of interpreting reality. Wearing tainted glasses hinder
you to perceive the real color of the objects you see.
The two preceding verses of today’s Gospel deal with John the Baptist and Jesus. Verse 29 speaks of those who listened to John, including the publicans, who were converted and were baptized. In contrast verse 30 speaks of the Pharisees and doctors of the Law who rejected God’s plans and did not
receive baptism.
They are the ones that Jesus called “this generation”. Jesus compared them to “boys” (paidi) who, because of their hardheadedness could no longer agree among themselves what to do, whether to rejoice or to be sad. Ps 95(94) says: “Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did. Forty years I endured that generation. They are a people whose hearts go astray”.
Having missed their chance of conversion their vision of reality is distorted. Furthermore their expectations were already fixed. They see only negative things in John the Baptist and unfortunately also in Jesus. They even accused Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard! Consequently they were not able recognize
them as bearers of the Good News of salvation.
Verse 35 speaks of the “children (tékna) of wisdom” in contrast with the “boys in the marketplace”
(verse 32). They are the little ones which include the publicans and sinners, who accepted with joy the divine plan.
How do I see my life, the people around me, my world? May the Lord grant us the eyes of faith, that we se the positive things in ourselves, in others and everywhere!
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