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).