Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: Ez 18:25-28
Reading 2: Phil 2:1-11
Gospel: Mt 21:28-32
Quite often, the readings we get at Mass are short excerpts from a larger story and so they don’t make a lot of sense to us unless we know the larger story. And generally speaking, homilies don’t often explain the scriptures to us but simply attempt to relate them to our daily lives. As a result, we often don’t understand fully what is being proclaimed to us in those scriptures.
Our first reading from Ezekiel could prompt us to ask: Why would the Israelites say that God’s ways are unfair? If we went back to the beginning of this chapter, we hear a proverb the Israelites recited: “Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children’s teeth are set on edge.” What’s the meaning of this proverb? It probably comes from chapter 20 of the Book of Exodus wherein God said: “For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation” (Ex 20:5).
We don’t want to believe that God would punish our children for our personal misdeeds but to a certain extent, that punishment does come upon the children; but the punishment is not from God. If the parents live sinful lives, they show their children those behaviors and the children will probably repeat them and will suffer the consequences of their lifestyles. But the title of chapter 18 of Ezekiel from which our first reading comes this week is: “Personal Responsibility.” And the point that God is making through Ezekiel is that we will all be held accountable for the manner in which we live our personal lives; not for the manner in which others before us lived theirs. But there is always hope for those who repent of their evil ways and turn to God for mercy. Their sins will be forgiven, their evil ways forgotten, and they get a fresh start. That is the “golden thread” that we will find in our gospel this week and in our Responsorial Psalm as well: “The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not; in your kindness remember me.”
Our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians fits into this theme as well, as it is an appeal to humility and obedience before God through the example of Jesus’ humility and obedience; willingly accepting God’s will even though it would mean tremendous suffering on his part. The humility that Paul calls his readers to here is not just humility before God but humility before those around us as well: “humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.”
The second part of this reading beginning with: “Who, though he was in the form of God…..” is probably an early Christian creed quoted by St. Paul in his letter that exemplifies Jesus’ humility and obedience resulting in His exaltation and exhorts us to imitate that humility and obedience.
Our gospel passage is “The Parable of the Two Sons” and, as it is a parable, the sons and the father represent something deeper as Jesus makes clear in the end. The first son represents those who initially refused to follow God’s ways as presented to them through the prophets but later repented of their evil ways and turned to God. In this parable, the first son represents the “tax collectors and prostitutes” who initially refuse to follow God’s law but later turn back to God. Remember our reading from Ezekiel: “But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed; he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life.”
The second son represents the Pharisees and Sadducees who profess to be righteous and follow God through the teachings of the prophets, but their actions fail to back up their words. Recall Ezekiel again: “When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity …..” The message is the same in both Ezekiel and in our gospel: It’s about personal responsibility through humility and obedience before God. When Jesus asked the chief priests and elders which of the sons did the father’s will they answered, “the first.” In so doing, they condemned themselves because it was the first son (the tax collectors and prostitutes) that eventually followed God’s command and did his will. The second son (the Pharisees and Sadducees), professed to follow the commandments, but failed to do so.
Neither of the sons represents the ideal. The ideal son is the one who professes to follow God and his actions back that up. Unfortunately, none of us ever reach the ideal. But both Ezekiel and Jesus give us hope as Jesus tells us that sinners (represented here as tax collectors and prostitutes) will enter the kingdom of God before those whose actions don’t back up their words.
The message for us is to avoid being like the Pharisees who seemed to think they were paragons of virtue. Rather, let us be like the tax collectors and prostitutes who hear and recognize the truth of Jesus’ teaching and turn to God acknowledging their sinfulness, seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness. “But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life.”
