Friday of the Second Week of Advent
The gospel of the joy and of the peace
“To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.” Mt 11,16-19
The generation here described is similar to the generation of the nowadays time, because today it seems that nothing can make the people happy with what they have and with what they do. Although men of faith exist who live grateful to the Lord for the gifts which they have received, the dominant culture is very different. The messages which invade everyday our spaces, continue to emphasize the negative aspects of the reality, creating a sense of discontent, dissatisfaction, or even rebellion. We have seen within a few decades to move from endless fierce protests and strikes to reduce some of the weekly hours of work, parades, in all respects similar to the previous ones, organized to demand the job, which had failed. The biggest problem, however, is a simple psychological dynamics which became into the practice: the attitudes are often self-reinforcing and tend to be magnified on their own. The person who tends to be dissatisfied finds always new reasons to feel even more uncomfortable. The one who is exempt is the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, who is always able to discern the signs of God in the reality around him: from the glance of the children to the changing of the seasons and to the daily bread. The desire to have other things and to be elsewhere does not longer exist for him. With this peace in the heart it is possible to recognize in a more clear way the project which the Lord has prepared for us and to work to bring it to fruition. To be placed in this dimension means, as we have often experienced, to live with lightness of spirit, passing over the inevitable obstacles which the life opposes to us and taking pleasure of the joys which the life offers.