26th Sunday of Year A
Faithful till the end
+ A reading from the holy Gospel according Matthew 21:28-32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, ‘What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, “My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not go,” but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, “Certainly, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will?’ ‘The first’ they said. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.’
1. Today’s readings invite the believers to repentance and perseverance. The first time that I listened to today’s first reading from Ezekiel 18:25-28, was as a child. That day I felt that God was not right. How can someone live in sin for long number of years and then changes to become a better person and God congratulates him? This same God would frown at someone who has been doing good for a long time and then suddenly turns to evil life. He even declares that the person would die for his sins. Why not give him the same long time that the sinner enjoyed? Now as an adult I understand that the emphasis is on remaining steadfast in doing good because he who who fights and runs away loses the effort already furnished. A seminarian who abandons his seminary formation few months to ordination cannot become a priest. It is the same with every other profession. The good fight must be maintained till the final victory: ” He who puts his hands on the plough and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom of God” (Lk9:62) says the Master.
2. A sinner must make an effort to become holy and the one who seems to be holy must sustain the effort to remain holy. The gospel presents a God who deals patiently with both the good and the bad but who prefers the good to the bad. Jesus portrays this in the parable of the two sons. The first son was a straight forward person. His father asked him to go the farm. He said, “sir, I will not go.” But he later changed his mind and went. He may have annoyed the father by his seemingly harsh response but his father did not express his annoyance. He gently went to make the same request to the second son. The second son was courteous. He did not want to hurt the father’s feeling. He promised to go to the farm even though he knows he would not do it. The father must have felt happy with his response but his action must have hurt him more than the initial refusal of the first son. This is only a parable, addressed to the elders and the priests who pretend to be partners of God and yet refused the messenger sent by God. They, the “righteous” did not repent at the preaching of John the Baptist while those classified as sinners listened to him and got converted to God.
3. We have here two classes of people: those who say “yes” to God but do not do his will and those who say “no” to God but do his will. For Jesus, what matters is not what we say at first but rather what we do at the long run (Mt 7:21). It is for this reason that judgment has to come at the end not in the beginning. We can see that the son who said “no” at the beginning later ended up with “yes” while the yes man ended up with no.
4. The message is clear. Firstly, where we begin is less important than where we end. St Paul began as a persecutor of the Church but ended as the greatest evangelizer of all times. This is a big source of encouragement for us. It reminds us that change is always possible. A saint today was a sinner yesterday and a saint today can unfortunately become a sinner tomorrow. We should never give up trying to be holy. Secondly, those who believe themselves to be holy today must remember the parable of the publicain and the tax collector (Lk18:9-17) andpersevere in doing good. Without discouraging those who spend more time in the Church, it is necessary for such people not become like the elder and the priests who felt that they know God more than others and in this way could not see their need for repentance. We all need continual repentance. As we participate in the life of the Church, we must also make sure that we feed the poor, cloth the naked etc (Mt 25:31’46).
5. To conclude, today’s second reading (Phil 2:1-11) tells us that as long as we imitate Jesus in his humble obedience to the Father’s will, we will definitely be exalted on the last day. Imitating Jesus is being like the first son who in spite of his natural inclination accepted to do what is pleasing to his father. Jesus openly declared that “my food is doing the will of my Father and to complete his work” (Jn4:34). Jesus was obedient unto death. May God give us the grace of perseverance so that we would remain faithful till the end.
