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December 15, 2023The gospel narratives suggest that Jesus was very observant of life around him. In today’s gospel reading, the behavior of the playing children in the marketplace reminds him of his adult contemporaries, who responded neither to the preaching of John the Baptist nor the preaching of Jesus. The asceticism of John makes people think of him as possessed; the more celebratory tone of Jesus’ ministry made them write Jesus off as a friend of sinners and those considered undesirable. In other words, there was no pleasing Jesus’ religious contemporaries.
We can all get into that frame of mind; can’t we -- no pleasing us! We can find fault with everyone and fail to see what is of God right in front of us. The gospel calls on us to be open to the Lord’s presence, even when the Lord comes to us in ways that do not quite fit our expectations or worldview. Advent is a season when we try to grow in our openness to the many ways that the Lord is present to us. When the Church prays, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’, we do not specify the particular way that the Lord should come to us. We invite God to come in whatever way he chooses. In the imagery of our gospel reading, sometimes the Lord comes to us in the joyful playing of pipes, sometimes in the mournful playing of dirges. What matters is that we remain attentive and responsive to his many comings to us in the course of our lives.
