The Parable of the Two Sons, Richard Dobbs Acrylic on Canvas 2025, Christian Painters and Art Lovers.

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[Jesus asked], Which of the two did his father’s will?”    Matthew 21:31.

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Jesus points out today in stark clarity the difference between what we say and what we do. Sometimes, as in today’s parable, our actions can end up being the exact opposite of what we say. One son said “Yes” to his father’s request, the other “No”, and each did the exact opposite of what they had said. Here, clearly, actions speak infinitely louder than words. But look a little further into this story. Jesus compares the chief priests and elders of the people, the ruling class you might say, to those who could possibly claim to be the dregs of society, prostitutes whose lives were sinful and the hated and despised tax collectors who worked for the enemy – the Romans – and were therefore labelled unclean and unworthy of any place in society; and recall that Matthew, whose memory we recalled last Monday, was such an outcast until the Lord saw his inner reality. Now transpose the story up a level. The parable begins with a father asking  his sons to go work in the vineyard. One says yes and does nothing, the other no, but does, in fact, do as his father requested. The despised and rejected prostitutes and tax collectors had initially said no to a life of grace in the presence of God as evidenced by their life choices, then many of them heard the message as delivered by John the Baptist, and changed their whole lives into one of grace and therefore pleasing to God. Jesus then strongly implied that the highest people in Jewish society also saw John succeeding in changing his followers for the better, yet still condemned him. There is also no evidence that those people tried to intervene and save him from the ignominious death ordered by King Herod (beheading). Yet he had succeeded in his ministry and the leaders of their society did nothing to support, encourage and imitate him. They were the people who had said “yes” to God but had done nothing even after witnessing the good that John had achieved. In that sense, they had betrayed God!

And God is worthy of so much more. Today’s second reading from St Paul’s second letter to the Philippians is possibly the most beautiful Scripture passage of all. This is my favorite translation from the Greek differing slightly from today’s reading:

Though he was in the form of God,

Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

That is the way the chief priests and elders of the people should have reacted to John’s acknowledgement that Jesus was the Messiah and more especially Jesus’ actual presence in their midst! But they did not. And, as a consequence of the prayer above, it is why we genuflect at the presence of God in the tabernacle, why we kneel during the central prayer at Mass, to show our respect and belief in what the words say, and what happens to the humble bread and wine present on the altar. Today’s first reading in a way sums up everything: But if we turn from the wickedness we have committed, and do what is right and just, we shall preserve our life; since we have turned away from all the sins that we have committed, we shall surely live, we shall not die. And there it is, Sunday after Sunday, stretching each Sunday’s teaching into that week, as we try to be decent heralds of life, and live up to the clear expectations God has for us. And, with God’s unfailing help, we can do that, we can be Christ to the world, fulfilling our divine vocation day after day. Amen, Alleluia!

The Baptism of Christ, Perugino 1482, The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City State.

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