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STAYING TEACHABLE
“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her children.” (Mt 11: 16-19)
God reveals His wisdom to us in different ways, and through different sorts of people. But if our hearts are closed to God’s wisdom, particularly when we’re stuck in our own “wisdom”; when we are “wise in our own eyes” (Is 5: 21), then we reject God’s wisdom on any pretext. And the most common pretext for rejecting God’s message, as it’s preached in this world, seems to be criticism of the behavior of His messengers. I would become a Christian, it is said, if I ever met a “real” Christian. But this mindset, blinded as it is by judging others; by the conviction that “I” am in a position to judge the standing or falling of other human beings, would not recognize a “real” Christian in Christ Himself. Nonetheless, God’s wisdom “is justified” throughout the ages by her many “children”; by the many who chose to heed His message, while leaving the judgment of God’s messengers to God.
Today let me not waste time on judging the people I might encounter, lest I miss what I might learn through them. Let me pray this morning that I be a bit more teachable, that I may grow in Him, rather than be stuck in my own head. “O Christ the true light, who enlightens and sanctifies every person who comes into the world: Let the light of Your countenance shine on us, that in it we may behold the uncreated light. Guide our footsteps aright in keeping Your commandments, through the intercessions of Your most-pure mother and of all the saints.” (Prayer of the First Hour)
