From the responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises. Sing to him a new song; pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 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.”
“When I was a child,” Saint Paul says, “I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.” Jesus also compares the people to children who recognize neither the simple life of John the Baptist nor the full participation of Jesus in the daily lives of others. Yet each gave thanks to God in his own way. “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own,” says the psalmist. In the love of the Father, love never fails. Although children of God, we don’t yet know the fullness of the love of the Lord. But God calls us to him to continually, until that day, as Paul says, when love that hopes all things prevails. “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
God, help me understand your condescending love and that without it I am nothing. You love me first and always take initiative. Apart from this love, there is nowhere to go. Paul expresses love that rejoices with the truth, and truth is the person of Jesus your Son. “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life,” says the Gospel acclamation, “you have the words of everlasting life.” Give me the grace today to live in your love, to recognize my shortcomings, and to put my hope and faith in your mercy. “May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us who have put our hope in you.” Jesus, I trust in you!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.