I have often thought how difficult it must be for parents to encourage and instill obedience in their children as they grow into puberty and adolescence. Rebellion and independent thinking can often be a knee-jerk reaction, or saying 'yes' to a request and then dodging the bullet as it were afterwards are two common responses in teenage children. Nagging and disagreements may follow.
The parable of the two sons who do their own thing correspond to Jesus listeners at the time, law-abiding Jews and sinners among them. Now 2000 years later, the parable is extended to us.
The second son
There were among the Jews, priest and elders who had heard John the Baptist’s call to repentance and refused to change, even after hearing him. Are we the Pharisees? Are we the proud and disdainful, arrogant Pharisees, casting aspersions, looking down on others, complacent? If so, then we are then in great danger of being overtaken and surpassed on the road to heaven by the very people we dismiss, those who in their humility avail of God’s mercy, turn aside from sin in the past, readily admit to past wrongs in confession, and are prepared to atone and make reparation for them, trusting in the mercy of God, and experienced a complete change of life through God’s grace and mercy.
Have you or I, like the second son, ever resolved to do something and then change your mind afterwards?
The second son who said he was going to do something yet did not do it was only fooling himself that the father would not find him out. What is lacking is the right motivation and perspective.
We all know and can label people like the second son for their double-speak, hypocrisy, contradictions, insincerity and unreliability and untrustworthiness. People who ‘talk the talk’, but won’t ‘walk the walk’. Their reputation quickly spreads before them by word of mouth.
The second son who said he was going to do something yet did not do it was only fooling himself that the father would not find him out.
We all know and can label people like the second son for their double-speak, hypocrisy, contradictions, insincerity and unreliability and untrustworthiness. People who ‘talk the talk’, but won’t ‘walk the walk’. Their reputation quickly spreads before them by word of mouth.
The first son
The first son who undergoes a mature thought process, who thought better of his refusal to listen to his father and changed his mind to work in the vineyard, corresponds to the great public notorious sinners of the day, tax collectors (Matthew among them) and prostitutes, whose sins were so grave, numerous and scandalous that they were written off by the Jews as beyond hope. Yet they are the ones praised by Jesus for ‘making their way’ to the Kingdom.
These latter people underwent a dramatic conversion, accepting and hearing the words of John the Baptist. They underwent a complete transformation a turnaround and dramatic transformation in attitude and action in lifestyle in concrete changes.
Have you or I ever, like the first son, ever resolved NOT to do something and then thought better of it? What is going on? Maybe your conscience was pricked, and some higher value came to mind? There can sometimes be temptations in all of our lives to laziness and comfort, things that distract us and allure us away from doing the right thing - from vigilance to chastity, honesty, sobriety, charity in speech. The temptation is too great it seem to have a cut off someone in gossip, in jest. We let ourselves down and scold ourselves afterwards for having given into temptation, whatever our weakness is, for the joy of a fleeting moment. If we succeed in resisting the temptation at the first instance, in thought, we are rewarded and even feel a certain satisfaction that on this occasion at least, we have overcome temptation even though we can readily recall times we have not been so vigilant.
We can accomplish a great deal in a short time by resisting temptation and go on to great good when we see through the smokescreen that the devil or our weakened will of repeated bad habits due to Original Sin, put up as barriers to virtue, and go on to do what seems at first repugnant to us.
It can be something simple as going to Mass on a rainy morning like this, by not turning over in bed in the morning and grabbing an extra few winks! It may be an unpleasant chore, like a letter or phone call or payment of a bill or returning others’ property we have been putting off, a necessary apology, a visit to a sick relative in hospital some distance away, anything that interferes it seems in our schedule, unpleasant housework, smiling at a colleague we do not easily get in with, having a conversation with someone we strive to avoid, going to the dentist, or even an overdue visit to confession, a fast or abstinence.
We can all recall times when, like the first son, we balked at the performance of an unpleasant duty – whether it was through fear, hesitancy, discomfort, putting ourselves out, inconveniences, or the sense of valuable time taken from us.
But afterwards, have you noticed the consolation and joy and satisfaction as well as a sense of achievement in carrying out what we would rather not do?
Are we sinners who have experienced God’s mercy and are here today because we have had an experience of God’s forgiveness? Are we, however, still in need? Do we trust God that he will have mercy on us? That our sins are not too great and too awful and too embarrassing to be forgiven?
What is never mentioned in the parable is the distinct possibility that the father may later check up on the sons – and to his surprise will see the unexpected – the son who repented and acted, not the son who made the verbal commitment, at work in the vineyard.
We are also called in the First Reading from Ezekiel, to take responsibility for our actions, and those actions and our attitudes, have eternal consequences. The door of God’s mercy is open to us.
Every saint had a past, every sinner has a future. We are nit the first nor will we be the last, to struggle with moral precepts. The history of the Church is filled with saints who were reformed sinners – St Matthew, St Mary Magdalene, St Augustine who fathered a child outside marriage, St Margaret of Cortona who converted after the death of her lover, a married man, Matt Talbot who turned to sobriety, and many more..
Who, then, will make it heaven, and who will be pleasing in God’s eyes – the self-righteous who perform lip-service only, or the sinner who repents and proves himself or herself in actions?
Which one am I? Which one are you?
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