Ezekiel 18.25-28・Ps.25.4+5a, 8+9, 10+14・ Philippians 2.1-11・ Matthew 21:28-32
Month of Protecting All Lives (Sept.01 - Oct.04)
Genuine Action over Empty Promises
Our Response to God`s Kindness
For today`s reflection, it is beneficial to consider the teaching of last week`s mass readings on God`s justice so that we will be able to understand that a repentant sinner has nothing to worry about the merit of the Kingdom of Heaven. Equal distribution of love to all is His way of expressing kindness and true justice.
There is a further teaching about God `s justice. God`s justice does not really come from a simple idea that God punishes the sinner and favors the righteous. God continues to shower love and mercy also to sinners. Basically, the punishment does not come from God BUT from the sinfulness of the person sinning (the person punishes himself/herself in sinning). So we understand that the results of selfishness, jealousy, violence, anger & hate, and even greed for example are loneliness, harm to others and to oneself, and even both physical and mental breakdowns. In the context of our Christian way of living, all those results may all mean dangers to each one`s spiritual growth leading to rejection of God`s Word, to a refusal of the foretaste of His Kingdom (refusal to God of true justice & love), then to a seemingly inevitable alienation from our Heavenly Father.
Our calling: We initially respond to the kindness of God by engaging ourselves to daily examination of conscience and by wholeheartedly recognizing our individual and community sins. Realizing and recognizing our individual and community wrongdoings bring us to the Holy Confession, and Acts of Love (repentance and transformation). The Holy Spirit guides us and gives us more courage to a change of heart and to acts of love.
The challenge brought by Jesus most especially to the religious leaders during His earthly life is not an outdated challenge to our present church and religious leaders, and to us all. The parable of the two sons in our gospel reading today indeed invites us to further examination of conscience. Verbal agreement and actual obedience can be considered with seemingly same importance in our time However, the importance of genuine actions over empty promises best explains the necessity of true repentance and true transformation.
We may be in different cultures and in different societal standing. However, we are called to have in us individually and communally “the same attitude that is also in Jesus”. We cannot be Christian when we are “too apart” from Him (Jesus). These are the same words of invitation of St. Paul to the Philippians from which we too, the present day community of believers, are also encouraged to base our response (either Yes or No) “to the call of duty” (to the work in the vineyard of the Lord) not from selfishness and self-interests, and personal conveniences & biases.
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