Reading I
Ez
18:25-28
Thus says the LORD: You say, "The
LORD's way is not fair!" Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that
is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous
turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of
the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if he turns from the
wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall
preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he
has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Gospel
Mt 21:28-32
Jesus
said to the chief priests and elders of the people: "What is your
opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go
out and work in the vineyard today.' He said in reply, 'I will not, '
but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son
and gave the same order. He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.
Which of the two did his father's will?" They answered, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in
the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors
and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later
change your minds and believe him."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It
is quite fascinating today
that all the three readings we have just listened to stress the
importance and
the value of Doing God’s Will. The prophet Ezekiel has just said, “when
the
sinner decides to turn against his sinfulness, he deserves to live.”
The
emphasis is on doing something/acting upon one’s sinfulness by turning
towards
God.
Jesus
did “the will of God”
by embracing the human condition and offering himself in agony on the
Cross. As
the letter to the Philippians says, “Jesus Christ, who, being in the
form of
God did not count equality with God… But he emptied himself, taking the
form of
a slave. . . he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on the cross.”
(Ph
2:6-8)
Jesus’
method of teaching was
that of involvement. He wanted the listeners to be more involved than
they
thought. Today’s Gospel is a clear example of that. Jesus tells a story
and
asks his listeners to make a judgment, to evaluate the characters in
the story
so that by judging the people in the story, they are judging themselves.
Just
as we have heard from
the Gospel that the Father said the same thing to the two sons: The
first son
responded: “I will not” (He said what he thought, he was honest/frank
to his
father) but later changed his mind and went. The second son said, “I
will sir” (He
was respectful) but he did not go.
The
way the two sons behaved
towards their Father reminds me of what Jesus said elsewhere in the
Gospels: “Not
everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven,
but only
he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven” (Mt 7:21). “Why do
you call
me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” (Lk 6:46).
May
we focus today on the
first son who said, “I will not” but later changed his mind? We see in
this
son: a change of mind, change of heart – a metanoia. It
is precisely
this
change of mind, this conversion- which is needed for one to enter the
Kingdom of God.
The
question is, "What
causes a change of mind, change of heart?" What brings about conversion?
(a)
St
Augustine had put his life into a complete mess.
He felt at one time something
driving him to put an end to his evil life. He felt a
voice one time
that said,
“Take and read”. In addition, the passage that he opened and read said
“Throw
off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light: let us
conduct
ourselves as in the day…make no provisions for the desires of the
flesh…” ( Rm
I) In his Confessions, he says, “My heart was suddenly
flooded with a
light
that erased all my doubts. And my soul was filled with a deep peace."
He
immediately entered the Catechumenate.
(b)
John
Powel, in
one of his books entitled “He Touched Me” – describes
what happened to
him one
time when he was praying in church. He felt enraptured by the Spirit of
God so
much that his life became different from that moment on wards. He was
touched
by God and the touch changed his mind.
Life,
and in fact, Christianity
is all about becoming, all about a series of conversion, all about
change of
heart. There is never a point where one can proudly say, “I have
arrived” at
being a Christian. To reach maturity and perfection is to have changed
many
times.
Einstein
once said, “Everything
has changed but our thinking”. Life is always movement
and flow, but
the mind
always lags behind. It holds onto past moments, and so it cannot ride
the new
that is happening. Therefore, to enter into life- into the Kingdom
of God.–
the mind has to change continually.
A
story goes that there was a
case against one man in court, and the judge asked him, how old he was?
He said,
“Of course, you know and everybody knows I am forty years old”. The
judge was
surprised, “But five years ago, you were also in this court. When I
asked you
then how old you were you said forty. How is this possible? After five
years
you are still forty”. The man said, “I am a consistent man, sir. Once I
say I
am forty, I will remain forty forever. You can rely on me”.
Loyalty
to the mind could be
at times something foolish. Consistent thinking, holding the same
position now
as we did earlier has a high price tag. It often entails denying our
participation in the river of life. There is a
spiritual saying that
goes: "The
mind makes a good servant but a poor master." Too
often, we cling to
what we
think. When we do that, then we are kept from attuning ourselves to the
deep
rhythm of life that brings redemption.
This
is exactly what we heard
of the chief priest and the elders. By profession, the chief priests
and elders
of the people were expected to be close to God and by profession; the
tax
collectors and the prostitutes were thought to be far from God.
However, what
was thought to be far from God was “going into the Kingdom
of God.
ahead of ”what was thought to be close to God." The reason is
when tax
collectors
and sinners heard John they repented. They changed their minds and
began to
live in a new way. However, the chief priests and elders did not change
their
minds, even though they knew that John was righteous. Something kept
them from
believing in John, possibly John’s insistence that they had to think in
a new
way.
Are
we content with our
present life’s situation? Let us allow this gospel to trigger us to do
something about our lives –
to
do God’s will, for mere lip service is
not
following his will.