The Gospel For Wednesday, the 24th week in Ordinary Time is taken from Luke 7:31st to the 35th verse. Jesus said to the crowds, to what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They’re 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’s possessed by a demon. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and you said, look, he’s a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is vindicated by all her children. There are two responses to the truth. One is rejection in the form of judgment and the other is acceptance and the transforming grace of what the truth brings.

It’s interesting to me to see the way the crowd perceived John the Baptist and Jesus. They didn’t look at anything other than something they could condemn. Judge Jesus is an alcoholic. John the Baptist was out of his mind. How easy it is to judge and condemn. How difficult it is to receive the truth that God longs for us to receive.

Please ponder these images in your heart. And when the music ends, I will close with a prayer. Foreign closing prayer Father, it’s your grace, your presence within us. It enables us to grasp and understand after pondering the mysteries of this wonderful story called salvation history. Bless us with that wisdom. Keep us from judgment, condemnation, and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.