Vocare reflection #16 Luke 7:18-50
Jul 27th 2007StephenUncategorized
There’s no pleasing these Pharisees. John comes along living a perfectly ascetic life, avoiding a lot of food and all alcohol, and they accuse him of being possessed by a demon. Jesus enjoys his food and wine and they call him a glutton and a drunk. Not only that, there was also the company he kept: Tax collectors. Collaborators with and victims of imperialism. Sinners. Who can imagine what kind of people that referred to? Then along comes a woman. The kind of woman you might laugh at, or avoid, or lust after. She throws herself at him, puts her mouth all over his feet. Tell John, Jesus says, what’s been going on here. That should answer his question. Of course I’m the one. This is what the Messiah does. I personally find it hard to give my friendship away. I can serve the poor, I can work with disreputable people. I can care for others. But how do I make poor people my friends, who society says should have little if anything to do with me? I don’t have an answer to that question, but I know that if I did accomplish it, it would look weird. It looked weird when Jesus did it. But it also looked to John’s messengers like God’s kingdom had come.