To what shall I compare this generation?

14 DECEMBER (Mt 11,16-19)

John the Baptist comes and preaches repentance and forgiveness of sins, and it is said that he is one with a demon because of his austerity and life accustomed to the rigors of the desert. Jesus comes who on the contrary, lives a life based on the holy virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude, because he shares all of life of men; however, without ever exceeding in anything, they say he is a glutton and a drunkard. They say all this because they do not want to be converted. They want to stay in their insensitivity to the truth.
Of this insensitivity we find historical news in the prophetic books. Isaiah and Hosea reveal this deafness and blindness to the people of the Lord, with very strong and eloquent words.

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth: Let the sea and what fills it resound, the coastlands, and those who dwell in them. Let the steppe and its cities cry out, the villages where Kedar dwells; Let the inhabitants of Sela exult, and shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and utter his praise in the coastlands. The Lord goes forth like a hero, like a warrior he stirs up his ardor; He shouts out his battle cry, against his enemies he shows his might: I have looked away, and kept silence, I have said nothing, holding myself in; But now, I cry out as a woman in labor, gasping and panting. I will lay waste mountains and hills, all their herbage I will dry up; I will turn the rivers into marshes, and the marshes I will dry up. I will lead the blind on their journey; by paths unknown I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them, and make crooked ways straight. These things I do for them, and I will not forsake them. They shall be turned back in utter shame who trust in idols; Who say to molten images, “You are our gods.” You who are deaf, listen, you who are blind, look and see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like the messenger I send? You see many things without taking note; your ears are open, but without hearing. (Is 42, 10-20).

When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. He shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be his king; The sword shall begin with his cities and end by consuming his solitudes. Because they refused to repent, their own counsels shall devour them. His people are in suspense about returning to him; and God, though in unison they cry out to him, shall not raise them up. (Hosea 11,1-7).

Man is responsible of this insensitivity. It is the result of a persistent injustice and a continuous transgression of the Commandments. The fruit of sin consists right in this: in making our heart of stone and our minds of molten metal, our eyes of glass and our spirit of terracotta. As bronze is insensitive to water, so the hardened heart is insensitive to the grace and truth. Insensitivity is the sadness of the world. It makes us unable to see, love, think, reason, discern, grasp the right, choose the best.

“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.”

Jesus must be recognized right, true, holy, not because of the words he says – these are also the fruit of wisdom that is in his heart – but for the work that he does, and these works are just divine. They are of a man who lives with God in his heart, mind, body, blood, in his very breath. The breath of Christ is a divine breath. His voice alone is enough for all creation to obey him and be renewed, be re-created, be recomposed and change appearance. The divine breath attests that Jesus is with God.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us with the divine breath.