Homily, October 1, 2023
From The Pastor
To live the Christian life as presented by Jesus is not easy. Sounds good on paper: God of love and mercy, ready forgiveness, endless love and patience, and the promise of eternal life. How can you go wrong? The fruit of the Cross has its cost.
Self-giving love is difficult in the best of circumstances. Self-giving love under the weight of sin, selfishness, desire for control, and the inclination for personal comfort can be easily dismissed as unreasonable or impossible. Consider the second reading today which conveys the reality of what we profess in Jesus as our Christ and God.
For the sake of our redemption, Jesus willingly rejects or sets aside his rightful glory as the Divine Son. He becomes fully human subject to the limitations of our human experience, short of sin. He totally empties himself becoming subject to the slavery of our sin. In obedience, he surrenders himself to a humiliating and torturous death on a Cross. A death that leads to his Resurrection and ours. His death brings death to our sin in the overpowering truth of Divine love and mercy.
Because of this, God the Father exalts him above every person and thing, that at the name of Jesus all in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God.
The second reading helps us to see more clearly the message of the first reading and the gospel. If you have not yet realized and accepted that you are a weak and vulnerable human being along with the rest of us, today is a good day to wake up and smell the coffee. The humility of Jesus challenges us to the humble and honest admission of our sins and our essential need for redemption.
The first reading captures a common human disposition. “…The Lord’s ways are not fair.” God’s response, “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair.” The people had turned from God through idols and disordered living. They found themselves exiles in Babylon and whined about their painful circumstance.
Sin serves as its own punishment. Disordered ways of living create disordered consequences of life. God points out this reality through the respect given to humanity in the gift of free will. If you turn from the ways of virtue to the ways of sin, you will be lost. If you change your mind and turn from sin, returning to virtue, you will find life. As the essence of love, God will not force us to follow the Divine way. Mature, sincere love cannot be forced. We are free to choose.
To say God is not fair mimics the human inclination to whine, blame, and project fault anywhere but where it belongs. Accusing another of the fault we know as our own disobeys the nature of love, which is the nature and truth of God.
The gospel conveys the same reality with a shocking twist that reveals the mercy of God. The parable is directed to the chief priests and the elders; those who hold others to the Laws of God, but they do not follow. It serves as a perfect image of free will as well as the wisdom to change one’s mind and heart. The image reveals the necessity of personal responsibility. This was the same challenge in the first reading.
For centuries, Israel held sin as a matter of national conscience. God’s ‘punishment’ was a national matter. God’s message through the Prophet Ezekiel challenged the people to an individual conscience of personal responsibility. Each person, in their desire to honor and worship the Lord, must have a personal relationship with God that calls for honesty and humility. Sins can be confessed, repented, and forgiven, rather than hidden, blamed, or scapegoated onto another.
The first son in the gospel responds with a quick, “I will not go.” Later, changing his mind, he does his father’s will. The second son, just as quickly says, “Yes sir,” but he did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will? The first son. He changed his mind out of reverence for the relationship with his father and obeyed him. The second son, as an image of the chief priests and elders, pretended to obey but did not, and likely had no intention to obey his father.
Now the shock. The elders and priests are teachers of God’s Law, but they do not practice it. They heard the words of John the Baptist but would not accept them. They saw the powerful words and deeds of Jesus but would not change their minds and believe in him. No personal relationship here. Merely lip service to God with little commitment to live the Divine way.
Jesus makes it clear. “Amen, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Why? They knew they were sinners. They were honest about it. When they heard God’s word in John, and realized the mercy of Jesus, they accepted it. They changed their minds and hearts and sought a personal relationship with Jesus. In his love, they were set free. The way of humility and self-giving is hard. The Cross of Jesus was not easy, but he did it for us out of perfect love. Be honest with yourself, and with God. Change your mind and surrender to the love of Christ. No blame, whining, or excuses needed.
Father John Esper
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