TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

26TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A
(Ezek 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Math 21:28-32)

Theme: We are to imbibe the same ‘mentality’ of Christ and preserve it until the last day of our life

Reflections:

- After reflecting the parable of the laborers in the vineyard of the Lord of the last week of which we can drew few concluding points in order to enter into the next parable again of the work in the vineyard of the Lord:
o God’s call may come at any time/any hour of the day
o The laborer has to be always ready ‘waiting’ and ‘watching’ for the work
o Once the call comes he has to respond to it with zeal and with enthusiasm without worries about the payment
o Payment is always of the Owner : the Owner is the Lord who pays with the justice
o The workers need not envy other co-worker who go ahead of them or who drew little more payment just because the goodness of the Lord cannot be measured by the human mind.
- We are still in the parable-oriented preaching of Jesus:
o It was not only in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mathew but the whole gospel is full of parables of the kingdom and of the just retribution that God gives to those who accept him until the last day or that God rejects to those who neglect his call and go their own way.
o Moreover, in the ending chapters, in a special way from 21st chapter, we find more of these again to indicate and to teach the upcoming judgment of the Lord for the attitude of man in his confrontations with his God.
o One of such parables is also today’s. It not only tells us that God sends us into his field of work but also expects/demands our free and total committed response to him and our response should last until the last hour of the work.
- Jesus invites us today to meditate upon these two sons of which the first one who saying yes in the beginning but does not go neglecting his answer ‘yes’ and goes in his own way not mind what has accepted to do and the other who saying no at the start and then has an examination of his conscience with regard to his answer to his father, repents and goes for the work and thus finally accepts his father’s word.
- Jesus invites us today to see also to which category we belong to: to the first or to the last. The first accepts but does not commit to do it, instead, the second reject at the first place but accepts and goes to work;
- Jesus invites us today to be ‘those who are ready to accept and do his work’ in the first call itself.

First Reading:

- The Unjust has the possibility of salvation if only he comes out of his injustice
o The passage from Ezekiel deals with the individual responsibility of man. Man has to make a choice between accepting and walking in the way that the Lord shows and of rejecting and going astray from the path of the Lord to his own condemnation.
o God gives us the option or the possibility either for acceptance or for rejection; because God allows man to choose in his freedom; God respects the human freedom; But He ultimately wants and demands that man chooses the right path in order to obtain the redemption.
- Even the just man has no guarantee of salvation if he does not remain consistent to the last day
o On the other hand, the just man has to persevere in his justice and keep going forward without turning back;
o There will be lot of difficulties and lot of trials (though not willed always and only by God) which will test him often and more; he has to endeavor till the last breath if he wants to be in the Lord;
o There is no guarantee or warrantee for the attainment of salvation only because the man is ‘sincere and just’ in the beginning of his life and then goes away from the path of the Lord; remaining intact till the end is the only qualification for the redemption.
- The conversion of the self from the path of injustice and evil makes the person enter into the realm of the possibility of salvation and it breaks the chains of the condemnation and opens a new story of the life and hope.
- The situations and the response to these conditions are always a possibility; finally, the force of man’s liberty and the divine grace that win at the end of the day that will provide salvation.


Second Reading:

- The Paschal Hymn:
o The letter to the Philippians which is written by Paul from the prison and suffering highlights the hope and joy of the Christian in the Risen Jesus and for this the letter exalts the believer in Christ to be joyful: “rejoice, again I say rejoice” (4:4).
o This joy gushes from the victorious triumph of Jesus Christ over the darkness of sin and from the sting of death; therefore, this joy has no boundaries and limits.
o Though the sufferings and hardships toss the boat of our life, the Christian, has always the strength of the Risen Jesus to accept them and win them by being constant and persevering in the hope that the same Jesus gives him.
o This hymn holds the contradiction:
 humiliation on the descending side and
 the crown of glory on ascending side
o By taking to himself, the virtue of humility Jesus has given meaning to the humble life and obedient life: he has humbled himself to taking a form of a servant and he has been obedient even unto death on the cross.
 To be humble means to make oneself emptied and stand before the other with empty hands and with total dependence: here Jesus did not hold on to his glorious status of enjoying the heavenly life but has given it up and taken a human form, a human who is less even than of the angels (Ps 8), and more than that taking the form of a servant, a servant who bends down to wash the feet of men (John 13).
 To be obedient means to make oneself available for the given work/task and stand before the other with total ‘giving of self’ in order to fulfill the will of the other: here Jesus did not hold on to his personal will for he says, “doing the will of my Father is my food”. And he has accepted all that God his Father has given him to do, even a suffering on the cross, “like a sheep to the slaughter’s house, he has walked in silence and obedience” and in his fullness of obedience he has accepted even death on a cross.

o Therefore, the hymn gives us meaning for our life, and answers many of the questions we find hard to answer:
 Why innocent has to suffer? The innocent Christ has accepted the suffering willingly although he has nothing to do with it. He has suffered and opened a new meaning for the suffering, be it by the innocent or be it by any other; in this way, the suffering itself is a possibility for the obtaining a grace and hope.
 Why the evil prevails always? Why can’t God stop this injustice? Why God is so silent? The evil is not the creation of God; the injustice is not the will of God; God who has seen everything good and beautiful will that everything should be such; God who has created man in his ‘image and likeness’ has endowed him with ‘freedom’ and ‘dignity’. It is in the freedom that the man has to choose either to be with God or to be without God. In this process of free choice that man chooses what he wants and what he wishes to have, leaving aside what his Creator wills; it is in this process that evil prevails and God leaves the man to choose what he wants in his freedom making the choices for him and so God is not silent but always works in man with the conscience, the presence and the effect of the Spirit, to make him choose right path and the right choice.

o Humiliation verses Exaltation! NO: Exaltation through the humility
 Both the humility and glory now do not stand against each other but complements each other and leads one to the other and stands as the prerogative to the other.
 We need not be discouraged or lose the self or the life just because we are humiliated; because our Model is Jesus himself who has won the crown of glory and the moment of exaltation only through the life of humility and obedience;
 We may not invite the moments of humility to have the possibility of glory but when those situations come on our way we need not fear or worried too much for the new angles of life but we go forward facing them with hope and joy.


- Having the same mentality of Jesus:
o Jesus invites us to be united in/with humility:
 The four characteristics of ‘if’ are an appeal of Paul to be united in the joy:
• If one needs a consolation in Jesus
• If one desires a comfort of the charity
• If one wills the communion of the spirit
• If one has the sentiments of love and compassion
 He himself becomes the motive of this ‘unity in humility’ because he has given himself and all his life for the realization of the kingdom of God and in particular, the accomplishment of God’s will through it.
 He does this by being ‘the suffering servant’ that was prophesied by Isaiah 53. Therefore, the two virtues of being attuned with/in God are: being in suffering and being servant. This Christ has fulfilled until the last day and last breath without hiding or saving anything for himself.
o The mentality of Jesus is to be ‘consistent in doing His Father’s Will even until death’ on a cross:
 Once we have accepted for entering into the kingdom of God we have to be ready to be ‘in humility and in obedience’.
 We will not give preference to any personal wishes or desires but to that of God’s. God’s call becomes the first food and first drink of the day.
 The same Jesus who has walked ‘straight in the path’ of His Father says that ‘if anyone wants to follow me let him not turn back’ and “one who places the hand on the plough and turns back is not worthy of my kingdom” (Lk 9).
 The good and authentic Christian has to remain in the ‘work’ and in the ‘call’ of God until his last breath and with the same tempo and the same enthusiasm.
 In this the first day of God’s call should be until the last day and the last day remains forever the first day. Therefore, the first day of Jesus in which he has entered into the world by incarnation with love and compassion for mankind is been until the last day in spite all the sufferings and insults he had to undergo.


Gospel:

- Parable of the two sons:
o Jesus always uses this type of parable to indicate the difference between the two brothers in the family;
o In all the cases the love or the demand of the father is same for both of them and therefore, the nature of the father remains unchanged;
o Jesus wants to explain how the members of the same family differ in the same situation given to them;
o It was same when he spoke of prodigal son and it is same today;


- Parable of the ‘Two Modes of responding to the call of God’:
o Jesus’ main intention in speaking about the two sons in form of a parable is to show the clear cut distinction between ‘the first called’ and ‘the second entered’:
 Those who are called into the kingdom first are those to whom the law of Moses is given and those who think that they ‘own’ and to them ‘belong’ the God’s kingdom and all others are just ‘outside’ this circle.
 Those who are invited into the kingdom by Jesus and those who willingly accept his call are those who are called ‘little later’ but all the same are called and they with all the humility and simplicity work hard to remain in the call.
o Jesus is very much displeased with those to whom the kingdom was offered first because out of their selfish wish they have become proud and arrogant and on the other hand, he is pleased with the simple and the poor who have listened to his voice and following him constantly.
- The First who says ‘Yes’ by mouth but remains ‘No’ in action:
o The attitude of the first son is that he willingly says yes immediately after the call of the father; and only in the process of its exposition into the action it is known that he is only the ‘man of words’ or the ‘man of promises’ and he forgets them soon after their escape from the mouth.
o He lacks consistency and continuance; he only starts; he only begins; he only says; in the words of Jesus he is like the ‘one who without measuring starts the building/ or the one without counting his strengths and limits goes for the battle against the great enemy; in these cases, in fact, he starts well but in the end he misses everything because he has no good planning and he has no commitment to fulfill what he has owed.
- The Second who say ‘No’ by mouth but repents and keeps himself in action:
o The attitude of the second son is that he hesitates to do what the father says and that’s why he immediately says No; and in the course of the day/life realizes how he has shown disobedience to his father and ‘converts himself’ from the false words and ‘comes out’ of what has been rejected and goes and does in silence all that father says.
o He regains his authenticity and his obedience; though he flatters in the beginning, though he wavers in the start with the ‘asking’ of the father to do something in his vineyard, finally, he realizes his mistake and coverts his word ‘no’ of his mouth into his action of ‘Yes’ of the heart and becomes like the ‘one who before the start of the building sits and does the good measurement’ and like the one who counts his ‘status fighting’ before entering into war with the strong opponent.
- The Third Way and the ‘authentic way’ is to be ‘ALWAYS READY TO DO’.
o Either of the son’s attitude has its limits and its backdrops because of their inconsistency in ‘Listening and Doing’ and therefore, imbalance between the ‘Word and Action’ and therefore, finally, connection between the ‘mind and the heart.’
o We are called today to be neither as the first nor as the second but as the One who says ‘yes’ and does immediately what he has accepted. This is the Third Way of living in and for will of God. That is, to be always ready to ‘obey and fulfill’ the word of the Lord.
o The greatest model for this type of ‘being’ is Jesus Himself who never said ‘no’ and never ‘failed’ to do what his Father has willed – that’s what we see in the second reading of today – he has obeyed doing the will of His Father till the last moment of his death, even death on a cross.
o There is a premium for this type of attitude: the glorification and the crown of joy in the presence of God;

Conclusion:

- To attain the kingdom of God it is not enough to be sincere and authentic only in the beginning days of life of faith, but this attitude should continue until the last day of our life on earth (first reading).
- ‘humiliation’ or ‘glorification’ belong to God and to his judgment; we should not be too fearful when the moments of humiliation/being less/ or of abasement come because ‘being in humility’ is a virtue according to Christian Faith; on the other way, we should not also be too proud and arrogant when the moments of ‘goodness’ or ‘glorification’ come because ‘being in glory’ is a reward according to Christian Faith and that which is offered by God himself for those who obey and listen to him even until death (second reading).
- The two modes of answering - either yes by mouth and no by action or no by mouth and later yes by action – which we heard today in the reflection of the Gospel, opens a new way, the third way of responding to the call and that is – to say ‘Yes’ and to stand by it until the end by Doing.
- As we have already meditated, Christ himself is the greatest example and model for us for this type of attitude. This is the ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ of Jesus and in a word, this is the whole life of Jesus and, as we see today this is, the ‘mentality’ of Jesus, and therefore, let us learn and live by it.
- We are called and invited today by the parable of two sons to imbibe the same ‘mentality’ of Christ and preserve it until the last day of our life.