Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ezekiel 18:25-28
Philippians 2:1-11 or 2:1-5
Matthew 21:28-32
If your family is large enough, you will have met both the young men in today’s Gospel. Anyone who deals with teens knows they speak in code. There are some who say “yes” when they mean “no” and there are others who say “no” when they mean “yes.” The first son is outwardly rebellious, yet obedient. The second son was probably thought of as the “nice” one who avoids confrontation by making promises he has no intention of keeping. For both young men, the problem is the same. Their insides and their outsides don’t match! Their language and their life are not in sync. They are typical teenagers and there is a teenager lurking in almost all of us.
This is a special challenge for those who work for the Church. We are, for the most part, educated in the language of Christianity. We are trained to speak the message of Jesus and most of us do it well. We teach and we write. People look to us for counsel and seek us out for advice. It takes very little time before we realize that it is easier to speak the Gospel than to live it. As much as we are a disappointment to ourselves, others are a disappointment to us. At today’s celebration most of us fear that we know all too well how holiness looks but we are not altogether certain how it feels.
On its most obvious level, this parable teaches us that promises can never take the place of performance and that words are not a substitute for deeds. It also shows us that we can spoil a good deed by the way we do it.
In the larger scheme, Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom is made up of those who began by saying “no” but found one day they could say “yes” and still be true to themselves. The truth of the matter is that God wants to save us all. Neither the scribes nor the Jewish leaders are excluded from salvation. Their treatment of Jesus simply meant that they lost the role they had in mediation. God wills that we all be saved. The first reading reminds us that the new covenant is open to both the just and to sinners whom God wills to be converted. Once more, we are brought to the realization that God’s justice is not like our own. His mercy and compassion rule.
At this Eucharist, we leave our pious words and our judgment of others behind. We acknowledge our own failures and we give thanks for the mercy of the Father as he invites us into his Kingdom.
