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Commentary on the Gospel for September 19, 2024
Dear friends,
Today’s Gospel ends by saying: “All the children of wisdom have given him the reason.”
Wisdom is the opposite of foolishness, of hiding, of looking only with one’s own eyes, of stubbornness. Wisdom is recognizing God’s presence, listening to His word and turning it into action, smiling with the joy that the Lord brings and sharing it with others.
In this passage, Jesus harshly criticizes the Jewish generation that neither did nor let others do, that criticized everyone for everything. Jesus compares them to capricious children who find no pleasure in anything, who neither sing nor dance, but who also neither cry nor repent. And He tells them that the way to understand and approach Him with a sincere heart is through wisdom; that wisdom that makes us humble before Him, so that we can recognize from the heart His greatness and that He is the Son of God.
And to us Christians, what does this passage say? It questions our behavior in the face of the situations of our reality, in which perhaps we judge or criticize the members of the church or the church itself, as retrograde in certain things or as liberal in others, according to our own criteria and not seeing with the wisdom that the Lord asks of us. When you fall into criticism after criticism, you live criticizing everything, you love to get involved in everything; you even give your opinion on what you don’t know. Deep down you are so critical that you end up being alone, because you become unbearable, nothing pleases you. You are so detail-oriented that you even complain about things before they happen…
Commenting on this text, the Pope says: “The image of children who are afraid to dance, to cry, who are afraid of everything, who demand security in everything, leads one to think of those sad Christians who always criticize the preachers of truth because they are afraid to open the door to the Holy Spirit.”
The “wise” Christian is the one who knows how to savor life. He is the one who values his life and values all those who are part of his life. He is the one who does not criticize his life. He is the one who is not bitter with himself and learns to live with joy and hope. He is the one who does not make excuses and buts to the Word of Jesus “the way, the truth and the life” and knows that obeying Him is living. Life is too short to go around embittering. Life is lived only once.
Your brother in faith