Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

St. Hildegard of Bingen

 Lectionary: 445

'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.'

Today's gospel is appropriate on this new feast of Saint Hildegard of Bingen because she was both a creative musician and a prophet of God's word. I have a CD collection of her music reinterpreted for the Internet Age. There are many websites including both her writings and her music; and because she wrote music to accompany her chants, the music is authentically medieval. 

The Lord's parable for today, or perhaps the translation, is somewhat confusing as the children who sing both cheerful and mournful songs are those who announce the Gospel; their jaded mates are those who refuse to hear. But the point is clear. The Lord's contemporaries would not listen to him. 

Even those who might have admired his bold integrity and recognized his wisdom would not "repent and believe the Good News." They could not imagine rewriting the story of their lives, and readjusting their habits, attitudes, and beliefs to match the Kingdom which Jesus so clearly represented. Their self-image was set in stone, and could not accommodate the Lord's accusations of guilt and sin. 

Recently, in the cacophony that is American conversation, opponents on all sides have been called snowflakes for their apparent fragility and unwillingness to be contradicted. They get upset and seem to melt when faced with the least resistance. I have received angry, anonymous letters after referring in a homily to "America's Original Sin," that of racism. And don't even suggest that suicide is not acceptable! Snowflakes cannot bear the suggestion that behaviors like adultery, pornography, violent language, or self-abuse are sinful. The teaching might be judgmental, unnecessary or ill-timed, but sin! OMG! "No! There is no such thing as sin." and, "God loves me too much to say that I have sinned."  

The Lord calls us to metanoia. It's a Greek word, and I've heard it explained as "turned inside out," as you might turn a sock inside out before putting it on. It must include reformulation of our policies and attitudes; and repentance for our sins. (Which is more than the emotion of remorse.) 

As Saint Thomas a'Kempis explained, the Lord's word comes to us both as guide and rebuke; and we should welcome both: 

I visit my elect in a double fashion: that is, with temptation and with consolation. And I read to them two lessons each day: one to rebuke them for their faults; the other to exhort them to increase their virtue.