True Obedience: Going Beyond Words to Action in the Kingdom of God

With his preaching on the Kingdom of God, Jesus opposes a religiosity that does not involve human life, that does not question the conscience and its responsibility in the face of good and evil. He also demonstrates this with the parable of the two sons, which is offered to us in the Gospel of Matthew (cf. 21:28-32). To the father’s invitation to go and work in the vineyard, the first son impulsively responds “no, I’m not going”, but then he repents and goes; instead the second son, who immediately replies “yes, yes dad”, does not actually do so; he doesn’t go. Obedience does not consist in saying “yes” or “no”, but always in taking action, in cultivating the vineyard, in bringing about the Kingdom of God, in doing good. With this simple example, Jesus wants to go beyond a religion understood only as an external and habitual practice, which does not affect people’s lives and attitudes, a superficial religiosity, merely “ritual”, in the ugly sense of the word. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 27 September 2020)

SOURCE: Word of the Day (Vatican News)

Saying Yes, Doing No: The Warning in the Temple Courts

Jesus entered Jerusalem, which was to be the scene of all the Passion events he had predicted. After he had cleansed the Temple with prophetic indignation and had started teaching in the Temple area, the priests and the elders challenged him, demanding hs provide his credentials to teach. Jesus used the parable of two imperfect and sons to give them a wake-up call. Through this parable, Jesus gave them the warning that, because of their pride and their refusal to obey God’s call to repentance, they would exclude themselves from God’s Kingdom, while the tax-collectors and sinners would repent of their sins and would be accepted there.

In the parable, a man who has two sons tells both to go out to work in the vineyard.  The first says he will go but he does not. The second says he won’t go, but later regrets his refusal and goes to work. The second son who first refused to go to work in the vineyard represents the tax collectors and sinners, while the first son, who agreed to work but did not go, represents the scribes and the Pharisees. The parable gives us the warning that it is our final decision for or against God that is most important, because we are rewarded or punished according to it. The message of the story is crystal clear. There are two very common classes of people in this world. First, there are the people whose profession of Faith is much better than their practice. Second, there are those whose practice is far better than their profession. The ideal son for this parable would be a son who accepted the father’s orders with grace and respect and who unquestioningly and fully carried them out as Jesus did his Father’s will.

Life Messages

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1) We need to lead responsible Christian lives, saying “Yes!” to God. We should become men and women who profess our Faith in word and deed, knowing that, “Not all those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my Father Who is in Heaven” Mt 7:21).  2) The Christian way lies in performance, not just promise, and the mark of a Christian is obedience, graciously and courteously given.  

SOURCE: Fr. Tony’s Homilies

“Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you”

(v 31)

After Jesus expelled the moneychangers from the Temple, he confronted the self-righteous religious authorities with a parable of two sons who were asked by their father to work in his vineyard. One gave lip-service to his father but did not go, and the other repented of his disobedience and went to do his father’s bidding. Likewise, the religious authorities claimed to be doing God’s will but acted otherwise. They held the “tax collectors and prostitutes” of society in contempt because they did not obey God’s law. Yet when these outcasts heard John’s call to repent, they reformed their lives. In contrast, the leaders of God’s people stubbornly refused to believe John’s way of righteousness and did not change their lives. Because they rejected God’s plan for salvation, they forfeited their place in the kingdom.

REFLECTING: Which son in the parable am I most like today?
PRAYING: Lord Jesus, help me to do your will every day.

SOURCE: Together with God’s Word