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“‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a
dirge, but you did not weep.’ John the Baptist came neither eating
food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is
a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Luke 7:32–35
Ecclesiastes 3 is a very popular reading for funerals. It says,
“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every
affair under the heavens. A time to give birth, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant…A time to weep, and
a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” This
reading is consoling to those who are mourning at a funeral because
life is filled with many different emotions and experiences. When
those at a funeral think about their loved one, they will recall
both the good times and the bad, the sorrows and the joys. Doing so
helps remind them that even though the funeral is a time of sorrow,
joys will follow in the future. This is the natural rhythm of
life.
In our Gospel today, Jesus challenged those who failed to have the
proper human response at the right time. “We played the flute for
you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.”
The image of playing a flute and singing a dirge and the subsequent
failure to dance and weep reveals a certain disconnect that many
people had to John the Baptist and to Jesus Himself during their
ministries. In commenting upon this passage, Saint Augustine says
that John the Baptist’s preaching was like a dirge that called
people to the “weeping” of repentance. However, when he preached,
there were many who failed to respond with the appropriate
repentance. When Jesus came, He preached and gave witness to the
new life of grace that He came to bestow. Though some listened and
responded to Him, there were many who did not. Jesus’ message was
like the music of the flute that was to inspire people to “dance.”
But many failed to respond with the joy that they were invited to
experience and live through His transforming message and
grace.
There is, indeed, an appointed time for everything and for every
affair under Heaven. The mission we have been given is to be
attentive to that which God is speaking to us at each and every
moment of our lives. At times we must “weep” by looking at our sins
honestly, experience the horror of those sins, and passionately
reject them. At other times we will “dance” when God invites us
into His consoling grace and asks us to see clearly His merciful
love. At those moments we are invited to be deeply grateful and to
express that gratitude with our whole souls.
Reflect, today, upon the calling you have been given to live in a
well-ordered way. Do so by considering how attentive you are to the
people around you. Does the attentiveness of your charity help you
to see the hurt within the hearts of those who are suffering? Are
you compelled to offer them a compassionate ear and merciful heart?
When others are experiencing the joys of life, are you able to
share that joy with them? Can you do so fully, without jealousy or
envy of any kind? When God inspires you to some act of conversion
and bestows some grace, do you listen and promptly obey, responding
in the most appropriate way? Our souls must become sensitive to the
promptings of grace and must respond accordingly. Seek to have a
well-ordered soul so that you will live and experience the life
that God places before you each day in accord with His perfect
will.
Lord, Your soul was perfectly ordered, always responding to the
will of the Father with perfection. You were firm when love
demanded it, courageous in the face of hardship, merciful to the
repentant sinner, and joyful at the conversion of all. Please help
me to always be attentive to the promptings of Your grace and to
always respond to You in the way I am called. Jesus, I trust in
You.
Image: Saint John the Baptist, standing in a landscape
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