Today, Jesus points out the hardness of heart of the people of His time—especially the Pharisees—who were so sure of themselves that no one could move them to conversion. They were unmoved by John the Baptist, “who neither ate bread nor drank wine” (cf Lk 7:33); instead, they accused him of being possessed by a demon. Nor were they moved by the Son of Man, “who eats and drinks” (cf Lk 7:34); Him they accused of being a glutton and a drunkard—worse yet, a “friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

Behind these accusations lies pride and arrogance: no one is going to teach them anything. They will not accept God; rather, they create their own “god”—one that never disturbs their comfort, their privileges, or their interests.

We, too, face this same danger. How often we criticize everything! — “If the Church says this, then it’s wrong; if it says the opposite, that’s wrong too.” And the same could be said of how we treat God or others. Deep down—sometimes even without realizing it—we are just trying to justify our laziness and our lack of desire for true conversion, to excuse our comfort and lack of docility. As St. Bernard observed: “What is more natural than not seeing one’s own wounds, especially when one has covered them up so as not to be able to see them? And from this it follows that, even when another reveals them, he stubbornly insists they are not wounds at all, letting his heart give way to lies.”

We must allow the Word of God to reach our hearts and convert us—to change us, to transform us by its power. But for that, we need to ask for the gift of humility. Only the humble can welcome God, and therefore allow Him to draw near to us—because we, like the tax collectors and sinners, are in desperate need of His healing. Woe to the one who thinks he has no need of the physician! For the worst thing that can happen to a sick person is to believe he is healthy: the illness advances unchecked, and he never seeks a remedy.

The truth is, all of us are mortally ill, and only Christ can save us—whether we are fully aware of it or not. So let us give thanks to the Savior, and welcome Him as such!