26th Sunday of the Year – FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I bet each of us can tell stories about people who have let us down? They made a promise to us that they never followed up on. We put our trust and invested emotionally in them and, in the end, they weren’t there for us. Perhaps it was a spouse who promised to love us till “death do us part”–and then they took back that promise in one big act of betrayal or, in many lesser, daily ones.

We can also remember broken promises made to us all the way back to childhood–“Cross my heart and hope to die”–which weren’t fulfilled. Or, later in life, we may have lost a loved one and at the wake people embraced us and offered words of sympathy, “If there is anything, anything I can do, don’t hesitate to call. I’ll be there for you.” Then they seemed to evaporate into thin air, leaving us on our own to deal with loneliness, grief and a dramatically-changed life pattern. “I’ll be there for you”–and they weren’t.

There are also daily letdowns we have almost come to expect. Who hasn’t stood waiting for an appointment we fit into our busy schedule, only to have someone not show up? Or, there was a job interview and a promise of a call-back but it never came. Family and social life have disappointing friendships, little betrayals, secrets, and gossip. These broken promises have deeply affected us, so much so, that we have learned to wear protective armor to protect ourselves from future hurts. We prepare ourselves not be too surprised when we are given a Yes, but get a No.

While we are at it let’s acknowledge the ways we ourselves have gone back on our word or, in order to avoid discomfit or confrontation, we’ve given a half-hearted Yes to someone or something which we never planned to follow up on. We have cheapened our promises and people have come to expect less of us; we are not someone they can always rely on. We are like the son who gave his word to do his father’s bidding, but never followed up on it. We said a Yes, but it turned out to be a No.

Whether we have been on the receiving end of broken promises, or have given only a half-hearted investment of ourselves to commitments we have made, we are in need of the healing and the challenge the Word of God offers us today. Our presence here at Eucharist today communicates a Yes we are making; not just to praying and participating in our ritual, but to the commitment they signify for our daily lives.

For example, saying “Amen” as we receive the Eucharist, commits us to being a disciple of Jesus and following his life of service and sacrifice for others. Are our hearts really invested in the one who invites us, “Come follow me”? Is our Yes here at Eucharist a promise to take his life out to the world in which we live? Or, will our Yes in ritual turn out to be a No in life?

Today’s gospel passage begins a series of confrontations between Jesus and his opponents. Jesus has entered Jerusalem where he has antagonized the religious leaders by driving out the merchants and money changers. The elders and chief priests have come to question Jesus (21:23). Jesus’ parable was a challenge to them. He was constantly confronted by the pious who seemed to epitomize a Yes to God by their strict observance of religious and ritualistic rules. Yet, Jesus criticized them for their lack of compassion for those oppressed by their strict interpretation of religious rules and observances. He accused them of putting burdens on the shoulders of others while being unwilling to lift a finger to help them. So Jesus called the Pharisees and scribes hypocrites. They seemed to give a Yes to God, but in their attitude and actions, they were saying No to what God asked of them.

Did the first son eventually accomplish the task his father asked of him? Today’s parable is unusual because we don’t know. What Jesus is praising isn’t a measurable record of great achievement, but a willingness to respond to an invitation to serve. Perhaps our desire to serve is what God wishes and that desire and our efforts, leave plenty of room for God to step in and fill the gaps.

Our Ezekiel reading is a turning point in Old Testament thought. The prophet and his contemporaries are in exile mourning the destruction of their homeland. Who was to blame for their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Babylonians? Previously the punishment for sin was blamed on the errant ways of their ancestors–“the father has eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (18:2; Exodus 34:7). Because their ancestors turned from God the people in exile reasoned they were being punished.

But, as we hear today, Ezekiel emphasizes each person’s responsibility for the consequences of his/her life. People can’t claim they: say their prayers; fast on holy days; put money in the collection baskets, etc. That doesn’t automatically make us children of God. Nor is it enough to be a Christian, or to say with Paul, “Jesus is Lord!” We need to put flesh on our Yes by proclaiming hope to the desperate; feeding the hungry; freeing those who are oppressed; healing the sick and giving sight to the blind.

Philippians gives us a model of another son who said “Yes, I will go.” He did go and he accomplished the task God gave him. The reading includes an ancient Christian hymn which Paul incorporated into his letter. Jesus was so willing to serve God that he did not cling to any status he could have claimed for himself. He not only became flesh, but in his obedience, accepted death on a cross
Paul uses Jesus as the model for us who, once again, give our Yes to God at this Eucharist. Our attitude, he tells us, must be the same as Christ’s: among us there is to be no competition. Humbly we are not to put our interests first but, like Christ, to be a firm and lived-out Yes to God. Which means, we turn ourselves over to God in service to one another.

Apparently the good people didn’t see any need to respond to Jesus’ invitation to change their lives and follow him. But, according to what he says today, sinners did just that, “tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Two possible responses to Jesus are held before us today. Let our presence at worship signify our desire to renew our commitment to being disciples of Jesus, not just in words, but in actions.

When we look over our recent past and notice the trend our lives have taken, with thoughts and deeds that speak of our being lukewarm disciples, we want the second chance this parable offers us. We want to be able to change our minds, repent and do the good things we know we are called to do–and do them with the wholehearted Yes the gospel requires of us.

A father had two sons

In today’s gospel, one son said ‘Yes’ but lived ‘No’; the other son said ‘No’ but then struggled and turned the negative response into an obedient ‘Yes’. All of us have lived and gone through those ‘No’- ‘Yes’ experiences. Recall the stories of Mary of Magdala and the Prodigal son, both of whom turned what had become a habitual ‘No’ to love and obedience/morality into a definite ‘Yes’ to God, love, grace and a new way of life.

Peter, Paul, Thomas went through those “life crises” of struggling from No to Yes and the other way round. The parable is a simple straightforward message about the importance of transforming negative responses to God into positive ones – forgiveness, acceptance, compromise or total surrender. Sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, Pharisees…who had been saying ‘No’ for so long, often come back to lead a life of ‘Yes.’

Jesus’ parable sets before us two types of people. Both had their faults but the one who said ‘no’ but obeyed in the end was the one who experienced mercy and love. The parable also reminds us that humankind is comprised of two classes of people. First, they are those who professed one thing and practice another. They make promises and great protestations of fidelity, but their actions lag far behind. Second, there are those whose practice is far better than what they promise or profess. These profess to have no interest in the Church or Religion and yet they live more religious/Christian lives than many professing Christians/Hindus/Muslims. Obviously, neither of the two types of people is perfect, and although the parable recommends one over the other, the truly good and authentic son or daughter of God is the one in whom “profession and practice meet and match.”

Christians learned to endure this life in the hope of “another life”. And that involved a series of struggles from “No’ to ‘Yes!’ Every human life stage and condition involves the tension between a ‘Yes’ and a ‘No’. Married life, from the first “I Do!” until the daily post-honeymoon temptations to say ‘No’ or ‘Why?’ constitutes a struggle that can only succeed when the number of ‘Yes’ overwhelmingly exceed the number of ‘No’ – and then it all ends in a compatible and generous ‘Yes’ on both sides.

Bob was born Catholic but never practiced the faith. He didn’t obey God. He was a stubborn man. He didn’t believe in heaven or the after-life. He didn’t believe in any form of reward and punishment for one’s life. He believed in nothing. When he died, friends at the wake/funeral services, looked down at him, laid out in a suit and tie, and commented: “Look at him. All dressed up and no place to go!”

RIGHTEOUSNESS VS RELIGION

Jesus had been walking around Jerusalem for quite a few days. He did not feel as welcomed as he was in the villages of Galilee. The religious leaders he met along the streets tried to belittle him in front of the common people of the city. That would be their tactic until they took him to Calvary.

Jesus, however, did not loose his composure. Ever patient and concerned, he continued to invite everyone to conversion. Always a teacher, he told them a simple story: “A man had two sons…He went and said to the first, ‘My boy you go and work in the vineyard today…”

The first son refused to go right away saying, “I will not go”. He gave no reason. He just did not feel like going. Later on, however, he thought better about it and, out of respect for his father, he went to the vineyard. The second son out of respect and righteousness towards his father, he replied, “Certainly, I will go.” He showed some respect and willingness to go, but soon forgot about it and did not go. He ignored his father’s wish altogether. He never actually went to the vineyard.

Just in case his listeners did not get the message of the story, Jesus
Made a direct reference to the priests and the elders of the people, and applied the parable to them in a very direct and provocative manner: “I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.” He is simply telling them about their refusal to accept God the Father’s project.

They are the public representatives of religion: they made solemn appearances in God’s Temple, offer sacrifices and declare themselves the guardians of the Law. They do not feel any need of conversion. Hence, when John the Baptist came along to prepare the way for the coming of God they had said “no”; when Jesus comes along to invite them to enter into his kingdom, once again they say “No”.

On the other hand, publicans and prostitutes are recognized “public sinners”: they represent those who have openly said “no” to God and his religion and they have stayed always out of the temple and outside the Law. When Jesus arrived and invited them to enter his kingdom, once again they said “no”.

Religion, as we know it, does not always lead people to do God’s will. We often feel satisfied in the fulfilment of religious duties and commandments and never see the need for any conversion or change. Conversion, we say, is for those who are outside religion and the temple.

It is really dangerous when we substitute the Good News of the Gospel for common religious piety. Jesus already warned us: “Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of God; but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.”

YES AND NO

The parable of the two sons is the gospel reading for today. It is vastly different from the parable of the “Prodigal Son” and his elder brother narrated by Luke. In Matthew’s parable, the two sons are asked by their father to work in the vineyard. One says, “Yes” but doesn’t; the other says “No”, but later repents and goes to work. Nothing new in our own lives! It is an exhortation by Jesus that we keep observing people, – keep watching – if we want to know people’s character, including your own.
In the present era, in which so many Catholics find themselves in a crisis of trust with regard to the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases, Jesus’ parable of the two sons offers a profound commentary on the complexity of trust and the question of how one can know another human being enough to believe they are good. Can we, ever? Human goodness, or badness for that matter, is more of a direction one seems to be heading in than a static, absolute value with which we are somewhat imprinted. For so short a gospel passage, just five verses, this one is remarkably complex.

We might ask ourselves, did the father ask the two sons together or did he go to the one first and to the other later? Perhaps the order of asking indicates that the father already knew what to expect! People who know each other over a long time, as family members do, may, sometimes, have some advantages in understanding the relationships between a given person’s words and his or her deeds. Therefore, one lesson about trust Jesus suggests here relates to the duration of association. When we know people over a long period of time, we can at least watch the relationships between their words and their actions and to discern what to expect on this basis. The level of trust and mutual knowledge eliminates the needs to introduce, explain or excuse/justify so many facts and figures. We know what the other knows, feels and does when facing or being faced by a multitude of circumstances. We know the answer he/she will give to so many questions; the emotions and opinions expressed when hearing this or that. Union of minds and hearts can eliminate mountains of words.

Did the father of the two sons know that the “Yes” would become a “No” and vice versa? Still the lesson to be learned from the parable is the same. And Christ wanted to teach his disciples exactly that. The application was simple: tax collectors and harlots have been saying “No” to the kingdom and doctrine all those days, but now with Jesus they are changing their minds and entering the kingdom. They are now doing the will of the Father. On the other hand, the Jewish and religious authorities of the time, who had been proclaiming belief in the Scriptures, failed to recognize Jesus and his origins, and so despite their protestation that they do God’s will, they actually do not.
The moral of the parable: be sure your actions match your words. Walk the Talk!