YOU MUST BE THE SAME AS JESUS CHRIST

XXVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 21:28-32

The Pharisees could not understand and they would not accept that Jesus kept company with tax collectors and prostitutes. How could a man of God allow such people in his company? They were far from God, impure and full of sin. And they saw themselves so holy and their behaviour so godly that they would not even dare to enter the house of sinners, sit at their table and eat their food. However, speaking to “the chief priests and elders of the people”, Jesus indicted them, showing their hypocrisy with the parable of the two sons. Both of them were given work in their father’s vineyard. The first son refused to do his father’s work, but then changed his mind and did work. The second one showed readiness to work but did nothing. Jesus compares the leaders of the people to the second son; they always say “Yes” to God, but never carry out their commitment. In fact, they are not committed at all and their acceptance of God’s will does not come from their heart. 

Time and again, most of us have the same attitude: we say yes and make promises of faithfulness but never keep them. Our faith is affirmed with empty words and our prayer is a show-off. We want to be recognised and respected as good and holy Christians, and then we look down on all the others we consider as bad Christians. 

Jesus makes it clear that words do not matter, only our actual behaviour matters. The important is what we do, not what we say. 

The parable teaches us that God always allows time for us to change our minds and carry out his will. It is always possible to repent and to convert, changing one’s ways. In the prophet Ezekiel, God speaks of that: he allows for change, and we will be judged according to our final attitudes. If we renounce our sins, we shall live.

In our modern society, like in the Jewish society of Ezekiel’s time, people do not believe in repentance and conversion; they demand to exact punishment on the sinner and anything less than that is considered injustice. However, God does not want the destruction of the sinner but his salvation: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live.” (Ez 18:32).

And we should never take God for granted. If we abandon our good behaviour and make a turn to the evil, then we lose every good thing that we did and we will meet with punishment.

In the second reading, St. Paul advises us to be like Christ, who humbled himself. Like him, we must discover the best in our friends and our neighbours: “Always consider the other person to be better than yourself So that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead.” (Phil 2:4).

SEEK THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

XXV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 20:1-16

In the parables, we can always find several layers of understanding, as they are stories in which different aspects are proposed to our reflection, challenging us. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we are presented with the parable of the landowner who was looking for workers for his vineyard. It is clear that the landowner stands for God, and the vineyard may be understood as the world, the Church or the people of God. There was plenty of work to be done, and so the workers were never enough, leading the landowner to look for workers up to the last moment.

In the first reading, taken from Isaiah, we find this command: 

“Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,

call to him while he is still near.” (Is 55:6)

Indeed, we must search for the Lord, never getting tired of seeking him, like the beloved who looks for her lover in the Song of Songs (SS 3:1-3).

However, the parable presents a different situation. The workers are just waiting as if they would accept anybody who could contract them. And many of them were latecomers as if they were not in a hurry looking for work. When we are confronted with our own slackness, we always find excuses and blame the others for our own failures, and that’s what we discover in the latecomers. Questioned about their idleness, they answered: “Because no one has hired us.”

Nowadays, there are so many people in the same situation. Certainly, the unemployed are plenty. Maybe, there are a few who don’t want to work or don’t bother to look for work, but many others cannot find a job and there is nobody to offer them an alternative. They are left to themselves and they feel useless and unworthy. However, the parable speaks of a different kind of work, referring to the work in the Kingdom of God, in God’s vineyard. God is the one who calls and invites to work. He does not force it on anybody, but he looks for all those who are ready to hear his call and work. We are called at different times and in a different manner. To hear the call, we must be looking for work, that is looking for something else or something with greater meaning for our lives. On our part, we only need to have a readiness to work.

The climax of the parable comes at the end and brings a big surprise to all who went to work. The latecomers received the full payment for a day’s work and they were impressed with the generosity of the landowner. Seeing that, the first comers hoped for a much bigger reward and felt wronged and exploited when they received only what they had agreed upon.

Many times, we have the same attitude of the first workers: in our relationship with God, we want everything to be accounted for in a business-like manner, and we need to be forced to understand that salvation is not received as a payment counted according to the work done. Salvation is always a gift from God’s generous love. On our side, we must show commitment, endurance, patience and faithfulness. The willingness to answer the call and put ourselves at the service of the Lord is essential, not the amount of work done.

We should never forget the words of God in Isaiah:

“my thoughts are not your thoughts,

my ways not your ways”. (Is 55:9)

Let us give thanks for God’s call and for the work he was entrusted to us. Let us cooperate with Him, inviting many others to work in his vineyard, bringing the Kingdom of God closer to us. Let us listen to his call for conversion:

“Let the wicked man abandon his way,

the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,

to our God who is rich in forgiving” (Is 55:7-8)

BE MERCIFUL AS THE FATHER IS MERCIFUL

XXIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 18:21-35

In our relationship with the others, we are very quick at judging the others, and we do that using two different measures: one for us and another for the others. With the others, we are very strict and even very harsh, spotting the slightest mistake; while with ourselves, we are always very lenient, even with the biggest mistakes. If the others injure us in any way, then we do not forget, but look for revenge instead. We set ourselves up as the rule and the point of reference for any kind of infringement. We are superior to the others, in such a way that we can never forsake our rights and an injury to our assumed dignity is of paramount importance

In the book of Sirach, this kind of attitude is condemned:

“Resentment and anger, these are foul things,

  and both are found with the sinner.

He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord,

  who keeps strict account of sin.

Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you,

  and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.

If a man nurses anger against another,

  can he then demand compassion from the Lord?

Showing no pity for a man like himself,

  can he then plead for his own sins?

Mere creature of flesh, he cherishes resentment;

  who will forgive him his sins?” (Sir 27:30 - 28:7)

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable that shows the foolishness of the man who forgets about his own sins and is extremely harsh on the small sins of the others who live or interact with him. As we read in the book of Sirach, “he who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord”.

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the king stands for God, and the servant who had a huge debt represents each one of us before God. The debt was so big that we will never be able to pay it back, and all of us deserve to be treated as slaves and to suffer punishment. Even though he had never the intention to pay, when confronted with the dire situation of going to prison, the servant employed delaying tactics, promising to pay if he was given more time. The king felt sorry for him and forgave his debt, not because he deserved it, but purely out of compassion and mercy. On his way out, he met a fellow servant who owed him a little money and demanded his money right there on the spot. In spite of the other’s pleading and promises, he would not listen and would not allow the other to have even a little respite. In his anger, he grabbed the other by the throat in an attempt to choke and strangle him. If we are truthful to ourselves, many times we behave in the same manner towards all those who injured us in any way.

In the end, that wicked servant was put in his right place, receiving the punishment that he deserved because, having received great mercy, he was not able to show a little mercy. And Jesus warns us saying that our Father in heaven will treat us in the same manner if we are not ready to show mercy for the little things that the others do against us. We are called to be merciful as the Father is merciful (Lk 6:36)

AVOID GETTING INTO DEBT, EXCEPT THE DEBT OF MUTUAL LOVE

XXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Ezekiel 33:7-9

This Sunday’s first reading, taken from Ezekiel, speaks about the role of the prophet: he is appointed to be a sentinel to the community. Like a watchman, he must pay attention to everything that surrounds him, to every movement and to anything that looks strange and out of place. He is responsible for the safety and security of the community. And he must remain faithful to the one who appointed him. He is at the service of the Lord and at the service of the community.

Called to proclaim God’s word, the prophet must put himself totally at the service of God’s word. He must be faithful, neither adding nor subtracting. He cannot change God’s word according to the trends of the moment, in order to be accepted and gain popularity. And cannot change God’s word for his own word, which he presents as coming from God himself. The prophet must proclaim the word of God in order to lead people back to God and not to bring people to himself. As a prophet, he cannot become the centre of people’s attention and he cannot use his role to get a profit and become rich. The one who does that is a false prophet and he will be answerable to God for his unfaithfulness.

As a sentinel, the prophet must warn people, when they stray from the right path and when they abandon the commands of the Lord. He cannot keep silent when he sees wrong deeds being done. The prophet must show them the right way, warn about their deviance and call them to repentance and conversion. The prophet must denounce all behaviour that deviates from the ways of the Lord, not caring about what is politically correct, since his only concern is to discover God’s will and behave accordingly. The prophet only cares about “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable”. (Fil 4:8)

The words of Ezekiel should make us reflect on the prophetic role of the Church. She is called to announce God’s word, calling people to repentance and conversion; and she is called as well to denounce the false ideologies that lead people astray. Although living in the world, the Church does not belong to the world and cannot conform to the world, but must be salt and light of the world. Whenever the Church is faithful to her prophetic mission, she will find rejection and even persecution. When that happens, she is called to carry the cross as her Lord carried the cross.

In the Gospel, Jesus asks us to feel responsible for our brothers and to care about them. We live in a society that values individualism and privacy, considering any interference in someone's life to be beyond what is reasonable and acceptable. The attitude of “mind your own business” is the most common, stopping anybody from being bold enough to approach someone to say a word of warning or of counselling. In spite of all this privacy, we can see how so many people expose their private lives in the limelight of the social media. However, in the community, the other is not a stranger but a brother or a sister and, when someone goes astray, the whole family suffers. We must have the courage to approach our brother who did wrong and counsel him. And love, care and concern must be the only motivation that leads us to do that.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that we should not have any debt in the community, “except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations.” (Ro 13:8)