The Best Rock

Seeing the good and evil of every generation

03/09/2022

Lk 11:29-32 While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Every generation always think they are the “greatest generation.” Do you know how I can prove that? Every time we listen to music from another generation, we think it sounds terrible, but the music from our generation always sounds best. I grew up in the 1980’s, and I know that 80’s rock, with Bryan Adams, U2, the Rolling Stones, and Bon Jovi, was the best rock music ever. And whenever I hear music from the 1970’s or the 1990’s, I roll my eyes and my stomach turns. Do you feel like the music you listen to now is the best ever and the music your parents listened to really sounds bad? That musical snobbery and superiority is evidence that we think our generation was the greatest, and all others were merely ho-hum.

By the way, here is a breakdown of the various generations and the labels or names given to every 20 to 30 year period of history. The truly greatest generation fought in World War II, and they were born between 1901 and 1927; they came of age when the war began in 1939.  The Baby Boomers (your grandparents) were born between 1946-1964. My generation is called Gen X (which is Greek for “the greatest generation” – just kidding), was born between 1965 and 1980. I was born in 1969.

The Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, which includes a lot of teachers here at Trinity. Generation Z was born between 1997 and 2012, which would encompass all our students at Trinity. And finally, Generation Alpha includes those born from the early 2010’s to the late 2020’s. No matter what name or label is slapped on a certain generation, though, we all think we belong to the greatest generation in American history, and you probably do too.

In the gospel today, Jesus slaps an unflattering label on his own generation of Jews. Do you recall what he called it? Our Lord said: “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” And as we heard in the first reading from the book of Jonah, the prophet Jonah preaches to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, a horribly corrupt and terroristic nation. Assyria was like the ancient Al-Qaida. Jesus is saying that his own generation of Jews is actually worse than the Assyrians because at least the Assyrians repented when Jonah preached to them, but the Jews would not.

If you asked the Jews of the first century, “What is the greatest generation?” What do you think they would say? They would answer just like we would: THEY are the greatest generation. And I’m sure they did a lot of great things. Yet, they were evil, too. My point is that every generation is always an admixture of good and bad, light and dark, holy and wicked. No generation is perfect, not even the greatest generation that fought in World War II.

Boys and girls, as you go through school, and even through life, be careful not to think you are the greatest generation. Maybe right now the 8th graders think they are the greatest class to ever graduate from Trinity, and all other classes before and after them were mediocre at best. I remember the principal at Catholic High School, where I attended, made us feel like we were the best class to ever graduate from that school. Then suddenly it hit me that he says that to every graduating class, and the balloon of my ego was burst.

When I am assigned as pastor to a new parish, I always think: “Wow, good thing I’m here to set things straight because the pastor before me left everything a disaster!” Then one day I realized that the priest who took my place at my former parish was thinking the same thing: “Good thing I’m here because that Fr. John left this place a disaster!” And it’s true: we all do some things well, and other things poorly. We are all the greatest generation, and we are also an evil generation.

Let me leave you with the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” He captures what I’m trying to say about each generation in a "far, far better" way than me. He wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.” In other words, every generation is the greatest generation and every generation is an evil generation. But 80’s rock is still the best.

Praised be Jesus Christ!