In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Wednesday 16 September 2020

Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 7:31-35

If only

If only Jesus were not who He is, the Son of God. If only Jesus were just a prophet, an enlightened man, or even a mythological fable, a religious imposture, a devotional invention. If only Jesus were not who He is, the incarnate Son of the Most High God, who came to visit earth and our generation to free us from evil and to lead us toward the light of God's love. If only. If only Jesus were not who He is, it would mean that something else has to happen and that we must and can wait for somebody else. It would mean we have more time.  If Jesus is not the summit of what could have been given us by heaven for our salvation, then we must and can expect someone more and better than him. But if he is who He claims to be, He is the ultimate, the very final sign for this human generation. Through Jesus, this generation has already been given everything, and there is nothing else that can be given. That means that if this generation has not listened to Him, has not loved Him, has not tried to follow His procedures, there will be nothing else for these people.
If Jesus is Jesus, and humanity did not welcome His presence and His words, it means that this generation will never be able to find something or someone liking to it which is for life and comes from the light. With Jesus all proposals, opportunities, directions, perspectives, options, time, and choices are exhausted. For this generation it would be better if Jesus were not who He is, because it could continue to wait and hope for something else while continuing to carry out its affairs and interests with devastating laziness and ignorance. But this is not the case. Jesus states it clearly and without any possible misunderstanding: 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.'  Jesus reveals here that the one who was to come actually came. John the Baptist came, the prophet of prophets, the stern voice crying out in the desert to make way for the coming of righteousness. Jhn was an austere ascetic, a mystical hermit beyond any human imagination, and this generation called him a man possessed by a demon, a human aberration, a servant of evil.
Then Jesus 
came, the Son of God, the Holy of Holies, the Word, God's Logos-thought made flesh. His gentle, loving voice inspired and warmed man's heart, and this generation called Him a glutton and drunkard. He came down among us as the heavenly bread and wine to fill the cup of the new and everlasting covenant, and this generation accused Him of taking part in eating and drinking binges. Jesus came, meek and humble of heart, the Lamb of God, the Beautiful Shepard, the Alpha ad the Omega, the Life, the Truth, the Way, the One who showed us God's love and compassion beyond any possible expectation and expectancy, and this generation defined Him Beelzebub, the devil himself, the king of the demons who wastes time with men and women of ill reputation, so stupid as to spend His time fighting a war against himself by chasing out demons from possessed men.
Jesus came, He came down from Heaven as a vulnerable child, He announced all beauty and wisdom, He healed the sick and every heart that wanted to be healed, He freed humanity from the snares of death and this generation treated Him like an evil impostor; it tortured him and put Him to death as if He were an insult to God. Considering how this, moody, capricious, inconsistent, illogical, insatiably demanding, whining, incoherent generation treated and is still treating Jesus, the Son of the Father, some doubts about its real intellectual ability and understanding are legitimate.
If only Jesus were not who He is, the Son of God. At least this generation could be displeased with Him because it is expecting someone else; but if this generation is not pleased with Jesus, who is God, this generation is insatiable simply because it does not want to be content. Not wanting to be content is the sin of this generation. That is its condemnation, its hell, its destiny.