HOMILY OF 24TH WEDNESDAY ORDINARY TIME: YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: WHAT CAUSES THIS HARDNESS OF HEART?
BY: Fr. Mike Lagrimas
Jesus said to the crowds: “Then to what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’
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.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
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We cannot please all people all the time. Jesus Himself knows this. In fact, despite all the good deeds He has done to the people, He was still crucified. In the Gospel today, He expresses His disappointment and dismay over this attitude of the people. He uses the image of a children’s play. Some children would play music and others are expected to react appropriately. They are to adapt their dancing to the rhythm of the music that is being played. But there are children who just want to spoil the fun and purposely do not behave as expected.
Jesus complains that the people are like these children who just would not react appropriately. John the Baptist came, preaching repentance and a life of austerity. And they said, “he is possessed by a demon.” Jesus came leading a highly convivial life, mixing with all kinds of people. They called him a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and other sinful people. He even invited a tax collector to be one of his twelve Apostles!
What, then is wrong with these people? Let me just propose two answers for this. First reason is their hardness of heart. They do not and cannot believe simply because they refuse to believe. As the famous quotation from Stuart Chase says, “For those who believe no proof is necessary, but for those who do not believe, no proof is possible.”
But why do they refuse to believe? What causes this hardness of heart? Clearly, it was out of jealously and spiritual blindness. For the scribes and Pharisees, it is jealousy fueled by pride. They cannot accept that this baptizer dressed in camel’s skin and this carpenter from a remote and obscure town be more popular than the intellectual and cultured Pharisees. And for the rest of the people, it is spiritual blindness. They are more interested in material things and their selfish desires. Hence, their indifference and even contempt with regards to the things of heaven.
And the second reason is their persistence in their long-held beliefs and errors. They already have their own idea of the ‘perfect prophet’, and especially about the coming Messiah. And so, they have their expectations. And they want God to adjust accordingly. So, since John and Jesus do not come up to their long-held ideas and expectations of a prophet and Messiah, they reject them, despite all the proofs shown to them. They do not want to complicate their lives by following Jesus.
This happens also to most of us today. There are times when we find it so difficult to accept the will of God and to acknowledge His messengers simply because of the hardness of our hearts due to our pride and our insistence on what we like to do.
In this Mass, let us ask the Lord for the gift of childlike docility and obedience, so that we may always be ready to accept His will in our lives, even if it is not according to our plans and expectations. The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane should be our guiding inspiration: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39).
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