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 respond to 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
