OT XXVI [A] (Ez 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32)

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king?” “I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” “Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written, “The King learned to rule by being obedient.” Christ was obedient to the will of his Father unto death, even death on the cross. As his disciples, we, too, are called to be obedient to the will of God.

This passage from the gospel sets before us a picture of two very imperfect sets of people, of whom one set were none the less better than the other. Neither son in the story was the kind of son to bring full joy to his father. Both were unsatisfactory; but the one who in the end obeyed was incalculably better than the other.

 

The Gospel tells us that there are two very common classes of people in this world. First, there are the people whose profession is much better than their practice. They will promise anything. They make great protestations of piety and fidelity. They fight for the rights of the church. They collect together the down- trodden to fight for their rights. But, their practices lag behind. At least some of us fall into this category. Our charity; our compassion; our holy rites are only demonstrations without the element of sincerity. We sometimes profess their faith but never practice.

Second, there are those whose practice is far better than their profession. They are fond of doing kind and generous things, almost in secret. But the real good man is the man in whom profession and practice meet and match.

This parable teaches that promises can never take the place of performance, and fine words are not substitute for fine deeds. The world has many preachers, but it is still looking for performers; the world is keen to have a Florence Nightingale; a Gandhiji or a Mother Theresa.

 

It is common in today's world to find Catholics who openly disagree with core Catholic teaching. We all know people who say that they are Catholic, but who don't come to Mass on Sunday - they only come on Christmas and Easter, if they come at all.

We all have heard or read about politicians who say that they are ardent and practicing Catholics, but who publicly support laws that go directly against some of the most basic tenets of morality as taught by the Catholic Church.

We call ourselves practicing Catholics, and yet we spend more time working on our favorite hobbies than on our prayer life, and we spend more time becoming an expert in our profession than in our faith, and we tolerate in our own lives hidden habits of selfishness and sin while we criticize other people for their more visible faults.

If we think about it a little bit, we see very clearly that this contradiction between what we believe and how we live is not a good thing. It is like the second son in today's parable. He impressed his dad with fancy words and a good show of healthy obedience, but underneath the surface he was still living for his own self-centered gratification, not for the greater good of his mission in the Father's kingdom.

When we fall into that contradiction, it is no wonder that we don't grow in our experience of Christ's love and grace, and it is no wonder that we don't grow in wisdom, interior peace, and the deep Christian joy that we thirst for. Faith, if it's real, makes a real impact on our lives. When it doesn't, our spiritual growth is stunted.

The surest way to banish hypocrisy from our lives is to adopt as our personal motto the phrase that Jesus taught us in the Our Father: "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done." God's will is dependable and truthful, and when we make it our highest priority, we too become dependable and truthful. And unlike followers of some other religions, as Christians we have an objective standard for God's will that protects us from doing evil and calling it "the will of God."

God's commandments, the responsibilities of our state in life, and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit: this is the threefold path to a truthful, fulfilling life, free from the poison of hypocrisy.

Today let’s ask ourselves: Which son am I ? Do my actions indicate my obedience to God’s will? Am I ready to change my attitudes and behavior?

The challenge is to be like a third son: Jesus, who was always faithful. St. Paul reminds us “Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, who.. humbled himself, becoming obedient unto the point of death.

Today, let's make Christ's motto our motto: Thy Kingdom come, Lord, and thy will be done, in my life, just as it is in heaven.