Friday of the Second Week of Advent
(Isaiah 48:17-19; Matthew 11:16-19)
In today’s gospel Jesus shares with the crowds his
disappointment with their response to the call to repentance. When John made it, he says, the people
thought he was crazy. When he makes it,
Jesus continues, they ask whether one who hangs around sinners can be
trusted. Matthew, the evangelist, has
Jesus leveling this criticism of the Jews perhaps fifty years before he
wrote. But he was aware that Christians
too might reject the call to ongoing conversion with similar excuses.
We have seen in our day increasing rejection of Christ as the
path to holiness. Secularization has
accelerated within the past three generations to the extent that in many places
mostly grey hairs go to church. The vast
majority neither fear punishment nor try to please God by living impeccably.
Nevertheless, the Church continues to wave a stick and a
carrot to move people to reform.
Especially during Advent, we await the return of Christ at the end of
time to judge the world. We also joyfully
anticipate celebrating on Christmas his first coming. Although it may seem like a losing strategy,
we know that it can work. At different
times either the soft or the hard approach has gotten through to people’s
hearts.
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