26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Eighteenth Chapter of Ezekiel is about personal responsibility. Using the example of a man with two sons, God, speaking through Ezekiel, draws comparisons between the sins of the father and the sins of the sons. He assures us that the father’s sins are not the responsibility of the sons and that the sins of the sons are not the responsibility of the father. In verse 20 he says, “Only the one who sins shall die. The son shall not be charged with the guilt of his father, nor shall the father be charged with the guilt of his son. Justice belongs to the just, and wickedness to the wicked.” God goes on to remind us of his compassion and mercy saying “But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die! None of the crimes he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the justice he has shown” (EZ 18:21-22).

This brings us to today’s first reading from Ezekiel 18:25-28. Here God responds to human accusations that “"The LORD's way is not fair!” God asks, “Is it my way that is unfair? Are not your ways unfair?” There is no sense blaming someone else for our individual sins. In verses 30 and 31, God makes clear that, “I will judge you, house of Israel, all of you according to your ways…. Turn, turn back from all your crimes, that they may not be a cause of sin for you ever again. Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”

In today’s Gospel from Matthew 21:28-32, we hear another story about a father and his two sons. Both the sons disappoint their father. The first son humiliates his father by refusing a request but later has a change of heart and complies. The second son lies to his father by agreeing to the request but fails to fulfil his obligation. Jesus asked the Chief Priests and Elders “Which of the two did his father's will?" Their answer was that the first son did his father’s will. Jesus used this answer as a teaching moment reminding the priests and elders that sinful people who experience a change of heart will enter the kingdom of God before the apparent “Godly” people who pay lip service to God but fail to meet God’s obligations.

Although the sinners in this story do get into the kingdom of God, they are not shining examples for us as Christians. Our role model is Jesus. In today’s second reading from the 2nd Chapter of Philippians, St. Paul tells us to “have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” We are to “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others” (PHIL 2:3–4).

Father in heaven,

Form in us the likeness of your Son

And deepen his life within us.

Send us as witnesses of gospel joy

Into a world of fragile peace and broken promises.

Touch the hearts of all people with your love

That they in turn may love one another.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen