Introit: Behold – Now she follows the Lamb who was crucified for us!  Modesty was her offering on the altar.

Brothers and sisters, today we remember St Lucy, one of the lights of the early Church. 

She was martyred under Diocletian’s persecution which began in 304, was well-known to the early Church, was a popular Saint in the middle ages.

St Lucy is among the saints venerated in common by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Churches. She is one of seven women, apart from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass, which we usually pray on Sundays. 

As we begin our Mass remembering her fidelity to Christ, let us be sorry for our infidelities, our sins.     I confess, etc.

The Gospel Matt 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds:

“To what shall I compare this generation?

It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,

we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,

‘He is possessed by a demon.’

The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,

‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,

a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

After the Gospel:

Their generation was like previous ones.  If they didn’t like the message, they found a way to discredit the messenger, thus feeling free to stick fingers in their  ears to block out God’s truth.

John the Baptist called their sins the way he saw them, and called for repentance. 

But he was abstemious and fasting, eating locusts and honey, so they could say  everything about him was due to a demon, and ignore him.

Jesus talked about Love being the greatest Commandment, even loving your enemy!

But  He attended weddings and dinner parties, so they could say: “This man eats with tax collectors and sinners,” then dismiss him as a candidate for Messiah.

It was like saying: “We’ll know God’s servants when we see them and these two are not! Neither of them looks anything like God, neither of them can possibly be God’s Anointed One.”

Like previous generations, they wanted to force the prophet into their own pre-conceived mold,  they wanted to define what the Messiah should look like.

They forgot their own history, with so many examples of God going outside the mold. 

Who would have guessed that God would decide to approach a wrinkled old couple  – Abraham and Sarah – two people who didn’t generate children even when they were young and virile, and from them start a mighty nation?

Who would have guessed that God’s favorite would be the youngster – Joseph the Dreamer –  choosing him over his dependable,  hard-working brothers?

Or that Moses the stutterer would become God’s mouthpiece instead of his more eloquent brother Aaron?

Or that David the shepherd boy would get elevated over Jesse’s other seven sons, who were much more impressive?

Even the Christmas story itself – how  God begins the New Testament by implanting his Son into the womb of a virgin named Mary and having him delivered in a stable and placed in the animals’ feedbin?

God doesn’t see as man sees.

God doesn’t do as man does.

He actually seems to prefer what we would label “the less-likely” option.