GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 24TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 16 SEPTEMBER 2026, ST CORNELIUS, POPE, AND ST CYPRIAN, BISHOP, MARTYRS

Luke 7:31-35.  Today’s gospel reading is preceded by two notable healings performed by Jesus.  Hearing of these, John the Baptists sends two of his followers to ask Jesus, “are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” – in other words, “are you the Messiah?”  Jesus commends John the Baptist as ‘great.’  Our reading is followed by Jesus being invited to dine at the house of a Pharisee who challenged Jesus’ teaching, but at which he was anointed by a woman who was a sinner.  The Pharisee wondered whether Jesus knew that he has being anointed by the woman, known to be sinner.   This act seemed to confirm Jesus’ reputation, but Jesus in reply forgave the woman for her sin.  For the Pharisee this seemed to confirm Jesus’ reputation as one who associated with tax-collectors and other sinners.  That is the scriptural context for our gospel reading.

Our gospel today has Jesus preaching a brief parable which concerns “the people of this generation,” a negative expression occurring several times in Luke-Acts. They are like children at play in the marketplace who ‘played the flute but who did not dance,’  like John the Baptist with his austere way of life, neither drinking wine nor eating a ‘normal’ diet – an odd, uncomfortable, ‘great prophet’ (Jesus has just said so), who was rejected by the Pharisees – ‘he has a demon’ (v. 33).  Jesus said that those who rejected the likes of John the Baptist rejected Jesus too.  Other children were so caught up in ‘eating and drinking with sinners’ that they ‘could not weep at a funeral,’ an image for Jesus and his followers, also rejected by the Pharisees.  Earlier in the gospel the Pharisees had said that Jesus ‘had a demon’ too.

Our gospel reading concludes with Jesus declaring that John the Baptist the ‘great prophet,’ and Jesus (the Prophet of all Prophets), had both brought the wisdom of God among the people, which the Pharisees certainly had not.  We are invited yet again to affirm our faith-conviction that Jesus is the one to follow.