TODAY’S GOSPEL (Mt 11:16-19)

From Matthew 11:16-17:

“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.'”

From Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, page 36

“Jesus exposes the excuses of his contemporaries. The children’s song highlights both the joyousness of a wedding (‘We piped’) reflected in Jesus’ ministry (11:19; 9:15), and the solemnity of a funeral (‘we wailed’) reflected in John’s ministry of penance. The unbelievers of Jesus’ generation (11:16) refuse invitations to embrace the kingdom.”

From Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Matthew, page 156:

“[A] proverb that alludes to village life in Palestine. According to customs among children, boys invited their companions to dance at weddings and girls sang laments at funerals and invited friends to mourn…[T]he disagreeable playmates who refuse to dance or mourn — these are the crowds that declined both the festive invitation of Jesus as well as the penitential summons of John.”

From Opening The Scriptures: Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life, page 217

“There’s no pleasing you; you just don’t want to play with us!”

From Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word (Volume I), page 666

“[T]his stresses the inseparability of the ministries of Jesus and his Forerunner as constituting but one ministry with two modes: lamentation (penance) and exultation (life in the Kingdom)…most contemporaries gave the same response of utter indifference. Like the children in the comparison, they simply continued sitting idly in the marketplace, whiling away the afternoon and refusing to either ‘dance’ with rejoicing or ‘beat their breast’ in mourning. Sorrow and joy, the deepest emotions known to man are surely the gates of wisdom, are equally closed to them.”

My take

This quote is quite obscure in its meaning. Thus, I just wanted to learn and share with you what some smart commentators had to say about it. I will only add one of my favorite Bible verses, Christ speaking to John on Patmos, for its jarring imagery and biting message for the Pharisees of Jesus’ time and the indifferent today:

[B]ecause you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Rev 3:16)

God bless!