Daily Reflection

Reflection for September 16, 2026

"To what then shall I compare the people of this generation?" (Lk 7:31)

Jesus looks at his contemporaries with a gaze that is both clear-sighted and sorrowful. They resemble children sitting in the marketplace who refuse to be drawn into any game: neither by joyful singing nor by lamentation. John the Baptist comes with the sobriety of fasting, and they accuse him of being possessed; the Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and they call him a glutton and a drunkard. In both cases, the heart remains closed.

Here lies the point: the problem is not a God who does not speak, but a heart that has decided in advance not to listen. Often we too build our defenses: if the Gospel asks us for conversion, we find it too demanding; if it offers us mercy, we find it too easy. So we remain still, critical spectators but never disciples.

Yet Jesus speaks a word of hope: "Wisdom is vindicated by all her children" (v. 35). God's wisdom, even when it is not welcomed, does not remain barren: it blossoms in those who receive it with a simple heart. The "children of Wisdom" are the little ones, the poor, the repentant sinners who allow themselves to be reached by God's love, without presuming to dictate conditions to him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, free my heart from the presumption of already knowing how you ought to act. Make me a child of Wisdom: simple, docile, capable of recognizing you in your messengers and in the poor. Amen.