First reading Isaiah 48:17-19
If you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river
Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.
Responsorial Psalm 1:1-4,6
Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the light of life.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Gospel Matthew 11:16-19
They heed neither John nor the Son of Man
Jesus spoke to the crowds: ‘What description can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:
“We played the pipes for you,
and you wouldn’t dance;
we sang dirges,
and you wouldn’t be mourners.”
‘For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He is possessed.” The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions.’
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A receptive heart
In today’s gospel, Jesus likens the people to children in a marketplace. They played wedding music, but no one danced, and when they sang funeral songs, no one cried. This illustrates their resistance to God’s invitations—John the Baptist came with sternness and was deemed possessed, while Jesus, who showed mercy and companionship, was labelled a glutton and friend of the sinners. The problem lies not in the message but in their unresponsive hearts.
God approaches us in different ways—sometimes through challenge and repentance, as with John, and sometimes through tenderness and joy, as with Jesus—but a stubborn heart finds excuses to reject both. A
hard heart often shows itself quietly through defensiveness, cynicism, or a refusal to be vulnerable. It is the inner posture that says: “I want God, I want to follow Him, but on my own terms.” Today, Jesus reminds us that “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” When we finally open our hearts, we discover that God’s ways, though different from our expectations, always lead to life.
Reflective question:
How can I cultivate a more childlike openness, with less control and more trust in my relationship with God?
Acknowledgment: Reflections are based on “Prayer for Living: The Word of God for Daily Prayer Year A” by Sr Maria Jose FMVD
