TWENTY-SIXTH ORDINARY SUNDAY
(Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32)
The parable in the gospel today begins as a familiar story:
“A man had two sons…” Sounds like the beginning of the parable of the “Prodigal
Son” in the Gospel of Luke, no? However, Matthew's parable is different.
Although both are about repentance, where Luke gives us a long and beautiful
story, Matthew is brief and plain. Furthermore, he writes with a purpose quite
different from that of Luke.
We can determine Matthew's purpose by examining the context
of the parable. Jesus has entered Jerusalem to fulfill his mission of
salvation. Soon he will be handed over, judged and crucified. Now the Jewish
leaders are looking for material to accuse him. In the previous passage, the
leaders asked Jesus who had given him authority to teach in the Temple. Jesus
responded that he will answer their question when they answer his. Then he
asked them: “Where did John the Baptist come from: from God or from men?” The
question put them in a dilemma. If they said “from God,” then Jesus would have
asked them why they didn't follow him. But if they answered “from men,” they
would have incurred rejection from the people. To be safe, they responded that
they didn't know. Therefore, Jesus did not answer his question.
Jesus does not want to pass his advantage by. He is going to
demonstrate that sinners have acted superior to his Jewish accusers. He tells
the parable of the man with two sons to show how sinners have responded to John's
call to repent while the Jewish leaders ignored him. The sinners who heeded
John's call are like the son who first says “no” to his father's command, but
then reconsiders and carries it out. Meanwhile, the Jewish leaders act like the
son who feigns obedience by saying yes to his father’s request that he go to
work, and then does nothing.
By the time Matthew wrote his gospel, the parable had
another reference. Rather than uncovering the hypocrisy of some leaders, the
parable taught the rejection of the gospel by the Jews and its acceptance by
the Greeks. Therefore, the Greeks are compared to the son who rejects the
father at first but returns to do his will. And the Jews are like the son who
says “yes” at first, but then he does not fulfill his father's will.
In addition to these two stages of meaning, the parable
touches us today. It shows how we prefer to appear good over being good. We
don't care if we do anything good as long as it appears to others that we do it
that way. We always want to make a good impression. This is vanity, and as the
book Ecclesiastes indicates, vanity infects everyone.
Should we try to overcome vanity? If we should, how to do
it? First, vanity distorts the truth. We
are probably not as handsome as our photos on Facebook. More than this, vanity
emphasizes the self where we want to proclaim Jesus Christ, the truth and the
way. But it is not easy to overcome vanity. Because all of us have defects of
one type or another, we want the admiration of others to feel valued.
Psychologists propose as a way to remedy this need that we accept ourselves for
who we truly are. They say self-acceptance is the key to peace in life.
We believers have a lever to achieve self-acceptance. It is
our faith in the God who loves us. God loves us as we are, not as we imagine
ourselves to be. We must not confuse this truth with an excuse for not
correcting our faults. God also sees in us the potential to repent of our sins
and sends us the grace to do so. If He loves us so much, how can we not love
ourselves?
In the second reading Paul urges us to be like Christ. He
did not draw attention to himself but rather he came to serve. By becoming like
Christ, we will become honest and peaceful: in short, true sons and daughters
of God.
