A friend of tax collectors and sinners

THURSDAY 13 DECEMBER (Mt 11,16-19)

When we do not want to believe in the Word of the prophets, because we love to proceed by our own ways, we always find a human and even diabolical motivation. At the time of the disaster in Jerusalem, Jeremiah is first asked to consult the Lord. Jeremiah consults his God and gets the answer. It is not accepted and he is accused of having spoken in his name and not in the name of the Lord. It is a history with a very rich teaching: “Then all the army leaders, Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, high and low, approached the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Grant our petition; pray for us to the Lord, your God, for all this remnant. We are now few who once were many, as you well see. Let the Lord, your God, show us what way we should take and what we should do.” Very well! the prophet Jeremiah answered them: I will pray to the Lord, your God, as you desire; whatever the Lord answers you, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you. And they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be our witness: we will truly and faithfully follow all the instructions the Lord, your God, will send us. Whether it is pleasant or difficult, we will obey the command of the Lord, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us for obeying the command of the Lord, our God.” ” This is the promise of all the leaders and the people.

The Lord answers his prophet: “Ten days passed before the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Then he called Johanan, son of Kareah, his army leaders, and all the people, high and low, and said to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to offer your prayer: If you remain quietly in this land I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I regret the evil I have done you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, before whom you are now afraid; do not fear him, says the Lord, for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power. I will grant you mercy, so that he will be sorry for you and let you return to your land. But if you disobey the voice of the Lord, your God, and decide not to remain in this land, saying, “No, we will go to Egypt, where we will see no more of war, hear the trumpet alarm no longer, nor hunger for bread; there we will live”; then listen to the word of the Lord, remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to go to Egypt, when you arrive there to stay, the sword you fear shall reach you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall cling to you no less in Egypt, and there you shall die. Word of the living and true God. The reception was one of total refusal: “When Jeremiah finished speaking to the people all these words of the Lord, their God, with which the Lord had sent him to them, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the insolent men shouted to Jeremiah: “You lie; it was not the Lord, our God, who sent you to tell us not to go to Egypt to settle. It is Baruch, son of Neriah, who stirs you up against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon” (Cf. Jer 42,1-43,3). With John the Baptist and with Jesus we go much further. Their own humanity is destroyed. While with Jeremiah the Lord had not spoken. With John the Baptist and with Jesus the Lord could not even speak.

“To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For 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.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

We know that the strategy of destroying the person who speaks in the name of God with Jesus reached its climax when he was accused of doing the healing of the demon-possessed in the name of the prince of demons. Never might whoever acts in the name of Satan act in the name of the Lord. A very serious sin against the Holy Spirit. Thus the doors of the kingdom of heaven are closed and those of hell and eternal darkness are opened wide.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, do not allow us to fall into sin against the Spirit.