A Reflection for Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Find today’s readings here.
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.' (Mt 11:16-19)
I’m talkin' 'bout my generation.
As a 22-year-old, I’m placed squarely in Gen Z, the first generation to have known the Internet, smartphones and social media for the vast majority of our lives; we’ve been called digital natives as a result, not knowing life without technologies such as these.
Having these tools at my fingertips has made life great in many ways—keeping in touch with friends is incredibly simple, information is easier to obtain than ever and, perhaps best of all, I don’t have to carry around a Walkman to listen to music on the go.
But as great as these advances are, it often feels like Gen Z can be a little distracted from things that truly matter.
For a generation whose attention spans are at an all-time low, it often takes something completely out of the ordinary to pull a GenZer in and away from TikTok. This is a challenge that Jesus faces in today’s Gospel as well.
The people Jesus is preaching to in this reading may have not had their faces buried in their iPhones while he was trying to communicate with them, but Jesus describes the experience of preaching as if he were talking to a wall. The people he is speaking to are more interested in him paying attention to the music of the flute than furthering his ministry.
As great as these advances are, it often feels like Gen Z can be a little distracted from things that truly matter.
It is not only apathy or lack of interest that Jesus describes; he comes up against blatant disinformation as well.
“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, the Gospel reading says.
Much in the same way that low attention spans are a hallmark of Gen Z, this generation also needs to be very wary of our seemingly unbridled access to the Internet, as disinformation runs more rampant than ever.
This kind of disinformation that is spread online is not dissimilar to the Gospel description of John being “possessed by a demon” and labeling Jesus as a “glutton and a drunkard.” Although Jesus surrounded himself with people who may have been looked down upon by society, the cruel judgment he faces in this passage is made on the pretense that Jesus was a sinner like the ones he befriended.
Jesus’ description of the people as being like “children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another” has the same feeling of people spending copious amounts of time on social media, sharing poorly informed posts back and forth, and passing judgments based on incorrect facts.
Especially on the heels of Pope Francis calling for Catholics globally to disconnect themselves from social media to become closer to Christ, today’s passage presents us with a similar task: to separate the wheat from the chaff of what we hear daily and to devote ourselves to seeking the truth.
