Wednesday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 20, 2023

Luke 7, 31-35

Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’  For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Following his account of the Lord Jesus raising up from death the son of the widow at Naim, St. Luke tells us of how St. John the Baptist, languishing in prison, sent messengers to learn from Jesus whether he was the Messiah.  Since the messengers knew where to find Jesus, this must have taken place in or around Capernaum.  The next event Luke recounts for us is this one, used for the Gospel Reading of today’s Mass.  It is evidently unconnected in time and perhaps place to what went before.

“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?”  The Lord’s words reflect the fact that despite the many miracles he had performed and that he “taught with authority”, the bulk of the people to whom he appeared and even with whom he lived did not “repent and believe in the Gospel” — “the Gospel” that salvation had come into the world.  We even see him later specifically rebuking Capernaum and the nearby towns for their lack of repentance. Jesus speaks of “the people of this generation”, meaning his contemporaries but also the people of this age, for both the Greek and Hebrew words we translate as “generation” can mean “time period” or “age”, as in the age between Abraham and Moses.  The Jews considered that the history of the world consisted in seven ages.  The last age would be an eternal Sabbath, and they themselves were living in the next-to-last age, that between the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians and the advent of the Messiah.  In hindsight, we see that the “sixth age” actually begins with the Incarnation of the Son of God and will last until he comes again in glory.  And this is what the Lord means.

“What are they like?”  The Lord impresses a memorable image upon our minds which we can dwell upon rather than a dissertation on our faults.  “They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another.”  At the center of every town of any size set a marketplace, an open space ringed with merchants of all sorts of goods.  A marketplace in a large city abounded in noise and action.  Even town marketplaces buzzed with customers and merchants haggling over prices and arguing over weights and sizes; with the exchange of town gossip and spreading of news received from visitors or messengers from outside the town; and with the cries of children at play, for it was the closest space children had to a playground.  It is from children’s play that the Lord draws his image.  “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.”  This chant-game would have been accompanied by groups of children dancing or pretending to mourn and lament.  “For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ ”  We do not read in the Gospel accounts about John the Baptist that anyone accused accused him of being possessed by a demon.  The Lord’s quote tells us that despite the Evangelists describing how everyone went to him: “Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan” (Matthew 3, 5), he was not loved and approved by everyone.  Certainly the high priests and the Pharisees did not, but many others among the Jews did not.  “The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ ” We note  that the Lord refers here to himself as the Son of Man, the one who stands before Almighty God and comes down from heaven (cf. Daniel 7, 13-14), and then refers to himself, the Son of Man, eating and drinking like anyone else, and on top of that, eating with “tax collectors and sinners”, spending time with those whom he wished to convert.  The Lord is saying that people will make excuses not to believe.  They will say that John the Baptist’s message is unacceptable because of his rugged lifestyle.  They will also say that the Lord’s unmistakeable signs of his divinity — his miracles — are unacceptable because he is too much like us.  People will fight like demons in order to avoid believing in God’s reality and his presence.  It all comes down to pride.

“But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”  The Son of God is the Word, the Wisdom of God the Father, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that was made (cf. John 1, 3).  He is “vindicated”, that is, “defended” or “justified” by all her children.  These “children” are the saints, and the lives of the saints and their eternity in heaven prove to the world that Jesus Christ is God through their own virtue, their lives of service, and their dedication to his worship.

In all this we see the Lord Jesus pained, not so much that he is misunderstood and rejected by so many but that so many would throw away their salvation.  He so loved the world that he freely gave himself up for it that it might be saved.  Let us do our best through practicing virtue, serving others, and worshipping him to bring others to him through our example, through the signs of his life shining in us.