Friday, December 11, 2026 — Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Children in the marketplace
Matthew 11:16-19
The Gospel
Jesus compares His generation to children sitting in the marketplace, calling to their companions: they played the flute and no one danced, they sang a dirge and no one mourned. John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he had a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they called Him a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is vindicated by her works.
Readings of the day: First Reading: Isaiah 48:17-19; Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Alleluia; Gospel: Matthew 11:16-19.
Reflection
Nothing pleases this generation. Fasting is too strict; feasting is too loose. St. Hilary names the charge plainly: the whole speech is a reproach of unbelief, because a stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching. John came in austerity and was rejected; Jesus came in mercy and was rejected. The fault was never in the messenger. St. John Chrysostom presses the point home: what excuse shall be given for them? Wisdom is justified by her children, that is, though they were not convinced, they have nothing to accuse. The works speak, even when the critics will not listen. Advent asks us to stop auditioning messengers and start listening. If neither the flute nor the dirge moves us, the problem is not the music.
From the Fathers
“The whole of this speech is a reproach of unbelief, and arises out of the foregoing complaint; that the stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching.”
— St. Hilary of Poitiers, in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 11:16-19
“What excuse then shall be given for them? Therefore He adds, And wisdom is justified of her children; that is, though ye were not convinced, yet have ye nothing whereof to accuse me, as also of the Father the Prophet speaks, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings.”
— St. John Chrysostom, Homily 37 on Matthew, in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 11:16-19
Saint of the day
Saint Damasus I (c. 305–384), Pope from 366 to 384. He defended the faith against Arianism, restored the Roman catacombs and honored the martyrs with epitaphs of his own composition, and entrusted St. Jerome with the task of a new Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. His optional memorial is kept today.
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Sources: the day’s readings follow the daily lectionary (USCCB, Lectionary 185). The Gospel text is not reproduced here; read it at the link above. Patristic quotes: Catena Aurea on Matthew 11:16-19, compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by John Henry Newman (1841, public domain).