“But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place. Who crying to their companions say: ‘We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: ‘He hath a devil.’ The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: ‘Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners.’ And wisdom is justified by her children.”
Jesus reaches out in every way, as love does, seeking to win the heart of the beloved by any means. Through the prophets, by which is meant the children, for they walked in great simplicity: “Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremias 1:5); “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet: but I am a herdsman plucking wild figs” (Amos 7:14) God had reached out to His people. The prophets through John the Baptist and Jesus all declared a simple message: “Let us love one another” (1 John 4:7); “Dearly beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7). They piped, that is, proclaimed the sweet music of heavenly words: “Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp” (Psalm 56:9), and hearts did not move in line with these commandments: “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being” (Psalm 103:33). The Psalms are the sheet music for the heart, and the law was meant to tune this instrument of love, but the song was not heard by those that did not obey: “Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears” (Psalm 57:5). This call to joyful, festive service to the Lord was neglected, and so there is the attempt to frighten into serving the Lord well: “Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes” (Ezechiel 7:8), that the essence of joy and love in this service may be found: “How sweet are thy words to my palate! More than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 118:103). There was no lamentation, no repentance for sin from this: “There is no health in my flesh, because of thy wrath: there is no peace for my bones, because of my sins” (Psalm 37:4), and so Jesus laments that no message, no call to love in truth, is reaching the ears of His people. St. John the Baptist came with a live of heroic virtue, profound asceticism, and a call to repentance: “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), and Jesus came filled with love and joy: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled” (John 15:11). Now, this is not to dissuade either approach, for these are different hunters chasing the same prey, which is your heart: “Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks” (Jeremias 16:16), one of rigor, virtue, and perfection: “Who is she that goeth up by the desert” of an ascetic lifestyle “as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices” which are the sweet fragrance of different virtues, “of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?” which are penance, prayer, and all that is pious, which appeal to the human tendency towards excellence and goodness. The other approach is simple, joyful love: “And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full” (1 John 1:4). Jesus did not neglect the former: “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry” (Matthew 4:2) while putting a seal of greater excellence on the latter: “I shew unto you a yet more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). What more can be done, then, when human perfection and Love Incarnate do not please, one being called a demon, the other a drunkard and a glutton? It is to drink ugliness to pick out what you see to be imperfect in your neighbor, Theophila, which in turn makes your soul uglier, for “you are what you eat” is a true maxim, particularly spiritually. However, to look at the beautiful in others and extol all that is good is to love them and drink the draft of beauty without ceasing: “For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). Wisdom is glorified in all her children, divine love is expressed in so many ways, and to turn one’s eye from the beautiful ways other Catholics love is blindness: “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that speak sentences” (Proverbs 26:16). Each lover of God has their own unique gifts: “And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit” (1 Corinthians 12:7), which should be looked for, that you may surround yourself with beauty and feast on spiritual goods: “Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love” (Canticle 2:5). Those in the state of grace have Jesus, the Wisdom of God: “But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God I made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30) present in their souls, and He is glorified in their lives. It may be expressed differently from you, with an entirely different temperament, but it is still the same Beloved working through them: “But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will” (1 Corinthians 12:11). Therefore, rejoice, Theophila, in all the lovers of God, for your Jesus is in them, and His wondrous love is seen in people throughout your life: “I will be glad, and rejoice in thee: I will sing to thy name, O thou most high” (Psalm 9:3).