TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

Readings:

Ezekiel 18:25-28

Psalms   25:4-9

Philippians   2:1-11

Matthew 21:28-32

If the truth be told, we probably all remember at least one moment when our parents asked us to do something, and, for a variety of reasons, we never followed through doing what we were asked.  It isn’t as though we were being directly disobedient, it’s just that other things got in the way – a date, talking to my friends, an unexpected invitation, falling asleep from watching television into the wee hours, plus, nowadays (and not available to people of a certain age) all the diversions that phones and high tech media provide.  There are no excuses given for the two sons who are the prime actors in today’s parable from Matthew, two sons who have something in common with the two sons from Luke’s most famous parable of the Prodigal Son.

Just as last weekend, we are cautioned by the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel that God’s ways are not man’s ways: “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?”  Today’s parable is addressed to the “chief priests and elders of the people,” the very people that will bring Jesus before the judgment seat of Pilate, and whose ire Jesus continues to inflame.  Yet, Jesus seeks their opinion about the behavior of the two sons: “Which of the two did his father’s will?”  Their correct answer shows that, in spite of their entrenched ways and opinions, they are not above being taught by the Master.  Surely Jesus knew, however, that they would be a hard sell.  Jesus’ answer to the “chief priests and elders,” given His understanding of the disdain they had for “tax collectors and prostitutes,” probably came as a comfort to them.  They were supposed to be like the first son, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, change their ways and recognize that all that Jesus has been teaching is true.  They were meant to make the move from non-believer to believer, from sons that first said no to the promptings of the Spirit, but then change their ways and come to see Jesus of Nazareth as the very Son of God.  No doubt, even if they followed this parable to its logical conclusion, they were not about to be men who hung around with “tax collectors and prostitutes.”  If Jesus was looking for a dramatic change in their demeanor He was, no doubt, greatly disappointed.

There are several things that we can take away from this week’s parable.  As the psalm says: “Good and upright is the Lord [Jesus]; thus He shows sinners the way.”  In spite of the challenge, today’s gospel shows Jesus not giving up on the “chief priests and elders.”  Jesus is a God of many chances, and it is never too late to redirect your course and proclaim Jesus as Lord.  Knowing the end of the story, it is clear that most of the chief priests and elders lacked the humility and the spiritual insight to prevent them from seeing Jesus as a threat, a threat that needed to be annihilated.  All Jesus wanted was what Paul prays for in our second reading, to have His joy completed “by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking of one thing.”  As Jesus did not give up on the “chief priests and elders,” so also He never gives up on us, and if we ask Him, He “will make known His way with us, and guide us in His truth.”

The fictional sons in the gospel parable have something to teach us as well.  We need to be men and women who complete the task that we have been called to do.  We may drag our feet in following the promptings of the Sprit, but in the end we pray that we might have the humility to truly listen to the Lord, and if need be, redirect our path in life.  God speaks to us every Sunday [or more] when the Scriptures are proclaimed to us.  It is the living Word of God that is proclaimed, just as if Jesus [and Paul and the prophets, etc.] were standing in front of us and looking for our opinion.  Unlike the chief priests and the elders, we are meant to listen to God’s Word with ears of faith, doing “nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;” rather, we should “humbly regard others as more important than ourselves, each looking out not for his [her]  own, but also for those of others (Philippians).”  Should we do that, then we will be serving the purpose for which we were created.