Our yes must be manifest in our actions
Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
The Lord presents two scenarios common in family life – a father asks his son to carry out some work and the son refuses, later thinks better of it, and obeys his father.
The second is the son who says yes but does not carry out his father’s request.
I am sure parents here today would readily identify with these two experiences. Parents will readily recall their own response to the actions of each of the sons.
Even if the first son’s response was initially negative, his subsequent actions redeem him in their sight. While the second son is a disappointment.
He promises but does not deliver. It is the actions and not the words that count in the end.
Considering this story now in relation to our life of faith we can ask ourselves as to which son we would identify? The one who says no or the one who says yes.
I think we would need to see ourselves as a son who says yes. We are believers. We have responded to the Lord by choosing to live the Christian life, that is why we are here at Mass today. We have said yes.
Each of us has a personal story of our relationship with God. For most of us we have grown up in a Catholic family. We have chosen to be faithful Catholics.
There may have been a time when we have wandered away, fallen into worldly ways and attitudes, but we now desire to live the Christian life. That is why we are here today.
Some others here today have come to faith by way of a personal conversion. Such a person will often have a more immediate consciousness of being moved by an experience of God’s presence or love, or by coming to a point of deep conviction about the truth of the Christian faith.
Indeed, such a person may have been like the son who at first said no and subsequently changed his mind.
Whatever our story may be, we are people who have said yes. And so, we can listen to this parable as a moment for personal reflection.
The question that this story poses is not so much that we have said yes but how much we have lived out what the Lord expects of us.
We notice that the teaching of the Lord is directed to the chief priests and elders. The Lord warns them, “I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the Kingdom of God before you”.
The Lord is warning them that they should not presume that they are entitled to heaven because they are religious. They may have the outwards signs of being good and religious people, but they are falling short in their actions.
We know that the Lord often challenged the religious leaders about their attitudes and actions. The Lord challenged a certain spiritual and moral complacency that he could identify in them.
We cannot ignore such criticisms. The Christian life in one of ongoing conversion. The Catholic tradition has encouraged the practice of examination of conscience. The particular time that we do this is prior to going to confession.
However, it should be a daily practice. In our tradition it is encouraged to be part of our night prayer. At the end of the day, we pause and look back on the day and examine how we have lived as a faithful Christian during the course of the day.
We examine our thoughts, our words and our actions. It is a good and salutary practice as the events of the day are still fresh in our minds.
It is not unusual for us to see that there have been moments in which we have failed to live as we should. Having the daily practice of examination of conscience heightens our awareness of times when we have fallen short as Christians. In a daily examination of conscience we are testing ourselves against the Gospel teaching of the Lord.
The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel today reminds us that we have to take personal responsibility for our actions. Judgement will be based on what we have done with our lives.
This reminds us that we cannot make excuses or dismiss our failures. We need to avoid the danger of making light of our sins.
Many, many times in the Gospels we hear Jesus speaking about a final judgement on our lives and actions.
Many, many times he speaks of this judgement as deciding our eternal destiny. He speaks of a narrow path that leads to life and a broad path that leads to damnation.
Jesus says that he will come again as judge – to judge the living and the dead.
To St Faustina Jesus spoke of this time as a time of mercy, but there will also be a time of judgement. In her diary St Faustina describes a message from the Virgin Mary:
I gave the Saviour to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Saviour, but as a just Judge. (Diary 635).
The Lord identified the sin of presumption in the religious leaders of his day. There was a sense of entitlement in them.
He saw that they suffered from a complacency whereby they felt no need to change their lives. They were saying yes, but their actions were not in accord with their words.
Let us not take lightly the need for us to ensure that our actions are in line with our yes.
In this time of mercy let us take up the practice of examining our conscience daily and so armed with a deeper consciousness of our daily failings pursue the ongoing conversion of our lives.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Sunday, 1 October 2023