Jesus said to the crowds: To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in the 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 her works.
Today's Gosepl really struck me, because it was like a mirror of my own attitude
In this Gospel, Christ's heart is wounded by perverse human nature, as both John, his
precursor, and Christ himself are rejected by many of those whom he came to save. And they are rejected for exactly the opposite reasons. We see clearly displayed that all-too-human tendency to justify our own behavior by seeing sin in other's when there is only virtue.
Pope Saint Gregory the Great describes it this way:
When they find something which is quite obviously good, they pry into it to see if there is not also some badness hidden in it (Moralia, 6,22)
This Gospel reveals the most dramatic of realities: We are free to reject Christ. All that is necessary to do so is to give in to our fallen human nature
(nb: this meditation above is from Regnum Christi's daily Gospel meditation which you can sign up to on the right hand side of their site)
Christian cheerfulness is not something physiological. Its foundation is supernatural, and goes deeper than illness or difficulties.Cheerfulness does not mean the jingling of bells, or the gaiety of a dance at the local hall.True cheerfulness is something deeper, something within: something that keeps us peaceful and brimming over with joy, though at times our face may be stern.
– St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #520
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