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Wednesday September 20th: Don’t kill the messenger!

“We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t cry.”

Luke 7:31-35

Today’s Gospel makes reference to John the Baptist and Jesus, different personalities; one deemed possessed because of his asceticism, the other, judged a glutton and drunkard on account of his association with sinners and tax collectors. But what do these two “messengers” who espoused different methods, have in common? The message of course! They both proclaimed the Kingdom of God, Jesus proceeding to live the kingdom values by way of example.

Sadly, they both met death in horrendous ways. Killing the messenger because the message is unpalatable, or in opposition to our belief or lifestyle does not rob the message of its validity. And yet, many have suffered the same fate: Martin Luther King Junior, Mahatma Ghandi, Oscar Romero, among others.

Today it is perpetuated. We kill our prophets with the knives of our tongues, lambasting them with biting criticism, backstabbing, shredding to pieces the ideals they uphold, not because there is no value in the message but simply because we ent ready to own it yet.

Lord, help us to value your life-giving messages.