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| Children dancing |
There are always excuses to not do what we know we ought to
do; not least when we hear the still small voice of God and refuse to respond to His invitation. In the Gospel reading for today (Matthew 11:16-19) Jesus exposes
such excuses. He uses a song of children:
We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.
The piping refers to a wedding, of dancing and music, which
is alluding to Christ’s own ministry. The wailing refers to a funeral where
there is public mourning and wailing, which is alluding to St John the Baptist’s
ministry.
Jesus’ contemporaries refused to heed the call of John to repent
of their sins, to mourn because of their disobedience, self-centredness and
waywardness. They also refused to respond to Jesus’ call to celebrate the
presence of the Bridegroom, the Messiah, and to learn how to love God and their
neighbour. They refuse invitations to embrace the Kingdom of God.
How often do we make excuses to not hear God’s call? How
often do we tell ourselves, I haven’t sinned that badly, I don’t need to pay
much attention to my sins and find ways of dealing with them? How often do we fail
to love God with our whole heart, mind and strength? How often do we give God
our second best, or third best – “oh that’ll do”? How often do we look on our
neighbour as someone who gets in the way, or someone to be used, or someone to ignore?
How often do we make such excuses and just carry on in our own way?
Fr Ian
