Word to the Wise
Monday, October 12, 2020 - Monday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gal 4:22-24, 26-27, 31-5:1 and Luke 11:29-32]"This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the South will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here."
I've spent more than half my nearly 50 years as a Dominican friar priest in campus ministry. It seems to me that popular media manages almost every year to come up with a different "generation" to describe the students with whom I am ministering. Whether it is "generation X, Y or Z or whatever," I seem to see the same lessons being learned that "generations" before the present one had to learn. (The two lessons I promise them that they need to learn outside the classroom are: how to use their time wisely and how to fall in love!) Jesus tells the "generation" in the Gospel According to Luke that they are fixated on "signs" and failing to see the "wisdom" and warnings that prophetic figures in their midst are offering.
Jesus' own fate at the hands of the "generation" he was preaching to was a repetition of the fate of the Old Testament prophets and a foretelling of the fate of other prophets to come who challenge the lifestyle and secular values in force at any time. The prospect of a final "judgment" just doesn't seem to register, only the desires and cultural offerings of the day matter.
Jesus' words are addressed to every generation. Faith is an everyday commitment to God and neighbor in love and integrity, and not to special "signs." We have available to us every day "something greater than Solomon or Jonah." Will our present "generation" be any different than the ones who came before us? AMEN