SAY YES! AND DO IT!
A blessed Sunday to you. I trust that in the past week you have experienced in your lives the generous love of God & have been living the reality of the Psalm Response of last week “The Lord is close to all who call Him” (cf Psalm 145:18).
The readings this week, the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time challenge us to look beyond appearances and words & deeper into our relationship with God. An important recurring question emerges for us: Are we merely saying “Yes” to God, or are we actually living that “Yes”? Let us unpack these readings now & get a sense of what the Lord is telling us today.
In this Sunday’s Gospel of Matthew 21:28-32, Jesus tells the parable of two sons. Their father asks both to go & work in the vineyard. The first son initially flatly refuses: “I will not go.” But later he changes his mind & goes. The second son readily (& rather glibly) responds, “Certainly, sir,” but never goes. Jesus then asks: “Which of the two did his father’s will?” The answer is obvious: the first son.
The Gospel therefore presents a provocative truth: God is more interested in our conversion & obedience than in our religious appearance.
The first son represents those who may initially say “No” to God but eventually experience conversion & a change of heart. Their lives may have been largely characterized by sin, selfishness or distance from God, but they can change direction. The second son represents those who say all the right things & prayers, adopt the right postures & outwardly appear ‘religious’ & ‘holy’, but whose lives do not correspond to their words.
This is an important challenge for every Catholic Christian to take note of. It is possible to say “Yes” to God through our prayers, Mass attendance, religious language and outward participation; we could also serve actively in Church ministry – yet our hearts remain unchanged. Christianity, however, is not simply about saying & doing the right things. Faith must eventually become visible in the way we live.
The 1st Reading from Ezekiel 18:25-28 reinforces this message. God tells the people that when a wicked person turns away from sin & begins to do what is right & just, that person shall live.
This is the beautiful reality of conversion: our past does not have to determine our future. God does not imprison us within our mistakes with no hope of redemption. No! Far from it! A person who has wandered far away from God can return. A person who has failed can begin again. A person who has consistently said “No” can still say “Yes.” It all depends on God’s Grace! As St Therese of Lisieux famously says: “Tout est Grâce” (‘Everything is Grace!’). It was Grace that caused the hardened heart of Saul the Pharisee who persecuted Christians to a radical conversion of heart & become St Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. Grace moved St Thomas the Apostle, who once doubted that Jesus had risen, to preach the Gospel in India & to give his life as a martyr. And it was Grace that brought St Augustine to conversion to become a Bishop & Doctor of the Church.
The Response in our Responsorial Psalm, from Psalm 25:6, expresses our appropriate & heartfelt prayer to the Lord: “Remember your mercy, Lord.” We ask God to teach us His ways, guide us in truth & remember us according to His goodness rather than according to our failures.
Our 2nd Readings today brings us to an even deeper level. St Paul tells the Philippians (Philippians 2:1-11) to have the same attitude as Christ. Jesus did not grasp at privilege or status. Instead, he emptied himself, took the condition of a servant & humbled himself in obedience, even to death on the cross.
What can we learn here? We discover the model for authentic Christian obedience. Jesus did not merely speak about love; he embodied it. He did not merely teach humility; he humbled himself. He did not simply proclaim obedience to the Father; he lived it completely.
The Christian life therefore involves a movement from words to action, from self-interest to service, from external appearance to purity of heart, & from pride to humility.
This has important implications for our families, parishes & communities. We can easily be swayed by externalities & ‘impressed’ by our own self-importance or by others who appear faithful, successful, eloquent etc; who participate most, who have the right opinions or who seem most religious & pious. Conversely, we tend to overlook the lesser ones in family & community, just like how Samuel the prophet was so impressed by Jesse’s first son Eliab because of his stature & bearing (see 1 Samuel 16). Even Jesse the father thought highly of his eldest & the other 6 sons as he put them in the ‘parade presentation’ & overlooked the youngest, David, discounting him as the ‘one who is out keeping the sheep’ & didn’t involve him in the presentation. But God looks deeper. He sees the heart and the choices that flow from it. As God told Samuel: “God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Let’s integrate all that we’ve shared today & get some clarity & direction. Perhaps there are areas in our own lives where we have said “Yes” to God but have not acted. We may say, “Yes, Lord, I forgive,” but continue to hold resentment. We may say, “Yes, Lord, I trust you,” while allowing fear to control our decisions. We may say, “Yes, Lord, I will serve,” but remain focused primarily on ourselves.
The good news is that God does not demand perfection before we begin. He invites us to change direction today. He gives us the grace & strength to begin now.
The vineyard is still waiting. There is still much work to be done: loving someone, forgiving someone, serving someone, encouraging someone, defending the vulnerable, reconciling a broken relationship, or simply becoming more faithful in our daily responsibilities.
The central question of today's Gospel is therefore not, “What am I saying to God?” but “What am I doing with the invitation God has given me?” & “How congruent are my words & actions?” Our “Yes” to God becomes credible when it becomes visible in our lives. May we have the humility to recognise our “No,” the courage to change, and the grace to follow Christ into the vineyard. God Bless You!
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead