“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.’” (Mt 11:18-19) Jesus points out to His listeners that many did not care either for the Baptist’s invitation to penance or His own message of joy. That is why Jesus compares them to the protagonists of a children’s song, who did not dance in wedding songs or cry at funerals. As a saying we have in Spanish: Ni prestan el hacha ni cortan la leña (they neither lend the ax nor chop the wood).
Ultimately, those people could not recognize a prophet in John the Baptist or the Messiah in Jesus Christ. Perhaps they lived stuck in their own opinions and prejudices and could not recognize who was speaking to them. Pope Francis once said in a homily in October 2014: “God’s only desire is to save humanity, but the problem is that it is often man who wants to dictate the rules of salvation (…). We too, each one of us, carry that drama within. Therefore, it would be good for us to ask ourselves: How do I want to be saved? My way?”
Let us ask God to grant us the gift of attending to His inspirations: that we can see deeper, using a supernatural vision; that we allow ourselves to be surprised by God who is alive in the people and events that surround us. Therefore, in order not to fall into the sad reality of those contemporaries of Jesus that today’s Gospel reminds us of, it is essential that we nurture a frequent contact with God which leads us to a contemplative life. But it is also important not to cling to our prejudices about how God acts and to be open to God’s creativity and ways. Only then can we understand and believe what the Responsorial Psalm says today: “He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers.”