Generation of Children

To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces...

 - From Matthew 11

The most recent sequence of readings began with anticipation for a wedding, and the coming of a Bridegroom. We have discussed the purity required of the Church, a bride to be adorned in white for the Groom, who is Christ.

We have seen how horrible we are . . . not at all pure in the way a Bride of Christ should be. Yet, He has made, and will make, us clean and worthy. 

Sin takes a lot out of us. It has cut short the life expectancy of humanity. We would do anything to live forever . . . except for what it actually takes.

In today's reading, Christ talks about His contemporary generation. It lives in the wealth of Rome. As long as you do not challenge the empire, you're okay. But the generation acts like you would expect a generation that had it all, to act. It's all about entertainment. They want to be entertained. They want to be noticed. The generation of Christ's first coming was like that. "Notice me!" 

They were an exhibitionist generation that would do anything for their moment of fame. They were a voyeuristic generation that had to be continually stimulated by entertainment. Perhaps the generation of Christ's second coming will be likewise?

Jesus says (paraphrased): "John the Baptist came, as did the Son of Man, and drew no attention to themselves. They focused on others, on serving them and calling them to holiness. Yet they are the ones that people noticed. Not only did they notice them . . . they mocked and ridiculed them."

How true and timely.

The world wears itself out with its abusive behavior towards itself. The generation that seeks to be noticed, and to be entertained, is a generation that cannot be content in its own privacy and thoughts. It is a generation that has perfected the Art of Self-Loathing.