Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 7,31-35

'What comparison, then, can I find for the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place: We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't cry. 'For John the Baptist has come, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, "He is possessed." The Son of man has come, eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus wanders: "To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?" Turned to those who were listening to him Jesus says that they are like those children who react in an instinctive and egocentric way. What counts is not what they see and hear, but what they feel. It is their "I" that counts and nothing else. Jesus says, "For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon"; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!" The Gospel frees us from the slavery of ourselves and gives us the ability to look beyond, to recognize the plan of God for the world, to gather the "signs of the times," those signs that God inscribes in human history so that we can help to direct it toward the good. The "wisdom" that God came to give us is to take part in his grand design of love for the world. There is no more time to lose in complaining or getting irritated: we must commit our time and strength to build up the Kingdom.