The Holy Martyrs Carpus, Papylas, and Agathonicus (249-51).
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Philippians 3:8-19; Luke 7:31-35.
Read Luke 7:31-35
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
We are very good at complaining and making excuses. Not just in our relationship with each other, but often times we make up excuses to avoid the will of God in our life: The commandments of the Lord are too difficult… Being a Christian is too complicated… The Lord is too demanding… The Liturgy is too long… etc. With this spirit of grumbling and negativity nothing is ever good enough for us. This is exactly how some of the Jews received John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing they did was good enough. In fact, Jesus for this reason uses the example of a popular children’s street game to point out the incongruity of their response to God’s manifestation in their midst. It is for this reason that they missed their hour of Divine visitation—how sad.
St. Cyril of Alexandria takes it one step further in his assessment: “The prophet’s words will apply to us, “Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil. Who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Who put light for darkness, and darkness for light.”(Is 5:20) This was the character of the Israelites and especially of those who were their chiefs, the scribes, namely, and Pharisees. Christ said about them, “To what shall I liken the men of this generation? (Commentary on Luke, Homily 39).
Each day we are given an opportunity to encounter, not just a new day, but God’s presence in our life. Each day the Lord is present in our life no matter the circumstance or people we face. We can respond positively to the Lord knocking on our heart, or we can ignore the knocking because it’s an inconvenience to stop, listen and open the door. We can strive to seek the Lord daily, or we can make excuses, like the Jews who complained and grumbled bitterly—even going as far as calling good evil. The choice is ours.
Bible References