20 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Matthew 11:19
Jesus looks at his generation and sees children playing in the bazaar. “It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’” One group wants to play wedding, the other wants to play funeral, and nobody joins anybody. So it was with John and Jesus. “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” John's fasting was too strict for them; Jesus' table fellowship was too free. The real problem was neither the fast nor the feast. It was a heart that had decided in advance not to respond to God, whatever music he played.
There is a lesson here for the Great Fast. The Church plays both tunes in her year. Now she sings the lament of the fast; at Easter she will play the flute of the Resurrection and call us to dance. Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to mourn, and a time to dance”. The danger is to be the child who does neither: who keeps the outward forms of the fast without sorrow for sin, and who will keep the Easter feast without joy in the Risen Lord. Many men in our parishes take a pledge during the Great Fast to give up alcohol and smoking, and their friends sometimes mock them for it; and when those same men come to the Easter table with joy, someone else will find fault. Jesus' answer is quiet and final: “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Do not argue with the mockers. Let the fruit of the fast speak.
Paul's letter deals with a painful situation in the Church of Corinth, where a member was living in open sexual sin and the community had done nothing. He clarifies an earlier instruction: he did not mean that Christians must avoid every immoral person in the world, “since you would then need to go out of the world.” He means the Church must not pretend that open and unrepented sin among her own members is normal. “For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? God will judge those outside.” This is not a licence for gossip or contempt. Earlier in the same chapter Paul says the aim is that the sinner's “spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The Great Fast turns this word first towards ourselves: “But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.” Before we sit in judgment on the world outside, the Church, and each of us within it, must look honestly at our own house.
Theme: “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Children who will neither dance nor mourn, the seasons of fast and feast, and the self-examination the Church asks of her members.
“a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” Ecclesiastes 3:4
“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’” Matthew 11:17
Apply: Keep the rest of this fast with real sorrow for sin, so that you may keep Easter with real joy.
“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD.” Lamentations 3:40
“But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.” 1 Corinthians 11:31
Apply: Make a careful examination of conscience this evening.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Proverbs 9:10
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.” James 3:13
Apply: Answer mockery with a good deed this week.
The problem is never God's music, but a heart that will not respond.
Judge yourself first, and let your deeds speak.
Take-home resolution: Give up one enslaving habit until Easter, and make an honest examination of conscience tonight.
Dear friends, Jesus compares his generation to children in the marketplace calling to one another: we played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn (Matthew 11:17). They would join no game at all.
John fasted, and they said he had a demon. Jesus ate with sinners, and they called him a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:18–19). The problem was not the music. It was hearts that had decided not to respond to God.
The Church gives us a time to mourn and a time to dance. Now is the time of the fast; Easter will be the time of the feast. Let us keep both with our whole heart. And when people mock our fast, let us not argue. Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds (Matthew 11:19).
Saint Paul reminds us to judge those inside before those outside (1 Corinthians 5:12). This Lent, let us first look honestly at ourselves, give up what enslaves us, and let the fruit of our fast speak for us. Amen.
Children, Jesus told about children who would not play any game, happy or sad. Let us not be like that with God! Now we are sorry for our sins, and at Easter we will be very happy. What good deed will you do today?
Lord Jesus Christ, you came to us in the fasting of John and in your own table shared with sinners, and many would not respond. Do not let our hearts be like children who will neither dance nor mourn. Give us true sorrow in this fast and true joy at Easter. Free us from every habit that enslaves us, teach us to judge ourselves before we judge others, and let our deeds show your wisdom. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
At first these two readings seem to pull in opposite directions. Paul tells the Corinthians not even to eat with a member of the Church who persists in grave public sin. In Matthew, Jesus is mocked as “a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. Together they show that the Church must be both holy and merciful, and that discipline and table fellowship both exist so that sinners may come home. The key words are inside, outside and wisdom.
Setting.
Paul writes from Ephesus (16:8), probably in the mid-50s, to a lively and divided church. A case has been reported of a Christian man living with his father's wife (5:1), and the community has done nothing about it, and is even proud of itself (5:2). Paul has told them to put him out so that “his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (5:5). These verses clear up a misunderstanding about something Paul had written earlier.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I wrote to you in my letter” (5:9)
This is an earlier letter that we no longer have. We are reading one side of a longer correspondence.
“since you would then need to go out of the world.” (5:10)
Paul's Christians are not to form an escapist group. They are to live and work among all kinds of people, and to bear witness there.
“Do not even eat with such a one.” (5:11)
Many scholars think this includes the shared meal at which the Lord's Supper was celebrated (11:17–34). The point is public witness and the sinner's conversion, not personal hatred.
“For what have I to do with judging those outside?” (5:12)
The Church's discipline is for her own members. As for all others, “God will judge” (v. 13), and that spares us a critical spirit toward our neighbours.
How the Church reads it.
The last line of the passage repeats a formula from Deuteronomy (17:7 and elsewhere). The Church's discipline continues this concern. The Catechism explains that certain very grave sins incur excommunication, which bars one from the sacraments until absolution (CCC 1463). The purpose stated in 5:5 governs the whole: salvation, not punishment for its own sake.
Setting.
John the Baptist is in prison (11:2). Jesus has just praised him as more than a prophet (11:7–15). Now he speaks about those of his time who would not respond to either of them. He draws his picture from what any child had seen: children in the market square playing at weddings and at funerals.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” (11:17)
The critics are like sulky children: whatever the tune, they will not play. Those who do not want to respond will always find a reason.
“‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (11:19)
“A glutton and a drunkard” echoes Deuteronomy 21:20, a charge against a rebellious son. The insult reveals what Jesus was really doing: eating with those whom others avoided.
“Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (11:19)
A note on the text. Luke has “by all her children” (7:35), and some manuscripts of Matthew read “children” here also, but “deeds” is the better reading in Matthew. God's plan will be shown right by what it produces.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism notes that Jesus scandalized some of his hearers by eating with tax collectors and sinners (CCC 588) and that he invites sinners to the table of the Kingdom (CCC 545). St John Chrysostom, preaching on this passage, points out that John and Jesus came by opposite roads, the strict one and the gentle one, so that nobody would have an excuse (in substance). John's fast and Jesus' table are not rivals. The Church has both a season of fasting and a feast at the end of it (compare Matthew 9:14–15).
Should I stop eating with a relative who is living in sin?
Paul is speaking about public discipline by the community in one grave and unrepentant case. He is not telling families to shun their members. Jesus ate with sinners, and Paul himself names the person's salvation as the aim (5:5). Keep the door open, keep the love real, do not pretend wrong is right, and ask your parish priest when a hard case arises.