26th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

'No, I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went.

Lectionary Readings for the 26th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/26th-sunday-a.html

Today's gospel is very interesting because it is another parable Jesus told the chief priests and elders. The parable is about two sons asked by their father to work in the vineyard. When the father asked his first son, the son said 'Yes' but he never went. When the father asked the second son, the son said 'No' but regretted it and went. Jesus then asked his audience who did the father's will, and they all answered, 'the second son'.

Our Christian ideal is that when we are asked to obey God's will, we say 'Yes' and do the Lord's will. Just like the example of our Lord and His Mother and all the servants of the Church who are both canonized or not canonized but live holy lives. Today's parable gives a more realistic and a more common situation in the world. When we are asked by bosses, superiors, parish priests, bishops, presidents, or leaders or persons in authority to do something, when we feel that the voice of God is in their speech, we respond either like the first son or like the second son. Our response if often imperfect. We say Yes but don't do it or we say No but do what should be done. Although the ideal is to say Yes and do what should be done, the practical situations we find ourselves in calls us to follow the example of the second son. Even though we do not like what we should do, we must follow and obey God's will through the authorities He has placed before us.

In reality and in the course of our Christian lives, we are sometimes like the first son. At another stage of life, we may be like the second son. The point that the Lord wants to convey to us is that even if we have sinned and not followed His will, we can change our ways and let our hearts return to Him and do His will of service to Him and His people. That is all He is asking of us. If we are now like the first son in our attitudes of heart or our outlook in life, then we are called to a change of mind and heart to be more like the mind and heart of His Son Jesus, who even though He may not like to undergo the Cross, said "Yes" to the Father and did His will.

Let us pray, that as we journey on in our Christian lives, we follow the Lord more and more in His ways: the ways of obedience and of doing the will of God in our lives. This takes the gift of faith and courage, which can be given to us if we invoke Christ and ask Him for help and assistance to strengthen us in our states of life and to do His will in the very ordinary responsibilities and tasks we need to do each day. Each time we do His will is a step toward the light of Christ. Every step towards Christ is a step toward the building of God's kingdom in us and in others.

25th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"Thus the last shall be first and the first shall be last."

Lectionary Readings for the 25th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/25th-sunday-a.html

The gospel today is about a parable Jesus told his disciples. It is about the parable of an owner of an estate who hired workers to work on his property at different times of the day. When the day ended and there was the giving of the wages, those who were called to start work later in the day received a day's wage. Now, those who started early in the morning, at dawn, expected more. However, this is the clinch of the message of the parable: the owner of the estate still paid them a day's wage.

Was the owner of the estate unfair? In our business world today, that would be indeed unfair. Workers would protest for everything is kept in time - especially their time records of work. But Jesus wanted to present an image of God who is not "of the world's standards". The image of God Jesus wanted to present was an image of God who was generous with His graces and blessings. And this we see and experience in our lives as we see poor people getting richer or rich people just staying as they are. And there are other situations to this also. What Jesus also probably wanted to tell us that the Father is just and mercy in the way He is God and Creator of us all. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." Justice, mercy, law, compassion, fairness and generosity are a creative tension in the person of our God. It is part of His mystery as One who is Lord of us all. We are called to trust in Him and His generosity to each and every one of us. What we must be thankful of is that He loves, cares, and wants what is best for us for we are all specially loved and uniquely loved just by the way we are.

Let us take more time to read again the gospel and see the richness and depth of the wisdom of the parable Jesus has told His apostle. We can gather more insights and depth of understanding when we place it in prayer and contemplation. God's ways are not our ways. This is the truth we always must know and live. That is why we are called to trust in Him with all our minds, with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our strength. And by our trust and love of Him this way, that love will flow towards both others and ourself.

Prayer: Lord, we pray that You grant the justice and mercy that is due us. Help especially those who are unjustly treated or those who need much mercy after a life of sin and darkness. Help us to trust in you and to let go of the standards of the world for once and believe in the standards and values of Your Kingdom. The more we have faith in You, the more we live in You. Amen.

24th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"...unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."

Lectionary Readings for the 24th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/24th-sunday-a.html

One of the important elements of our spirituality as Christians is to be forgiving and merciful to those who have wronged us or those who have done an injustice to our family or community. In today's gospel, we see Peter asking the Lord about the number of times we must forgive our brother. And Jesus replied, "not seven times but seventy times seven times". This reply by Jesus is simply saying that we should infinitely forgive our brother even though he has wronged us many times.

In our human experiences, whether it be in the family, in religious communities, or in diocesan structures, there is always the possibility of abuse of power or abuse of language or abuse of action. This is because our sinful humanity tends to make us dominate the other rather than to serve. When power is our goal or aim, it is most likely that we will abuse it sooner or later. But this is not what the Lord Jesus asks us to do. He asks us to serve as He did by His example of washing the feet of His apostles in the Last Supper. Also, He showed us that we can forgive even those who hurt us if we put our trust in God our Father like He did when he was scourged, mocked, nailed on the cross and left to bleed to death. But He nevertheless forgave all those who wanted His death. And we know that He was victorious in His faith because the Father raised Him by the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day.

How far we are from the One we wish to follow. In families, spouses often do not speak with one another for a long time because of a simple squabble. It could be because of differences in the way they want to raise the children or in how they want to budget the family income and savings. In religious communities, it may be because of the politics among the members of the community. One religious may want to ingratiate himself to the superior of the community and in his desire to do so, he makes his fellow religious appear bad to the superior of the community. This of course creates enmity among the brothers or priests in the community. And the same can be said for diocesan priests in relation to their parishioners or in relation to the politics in the diocese.

It all really must be based on the Lord's spirit of service and sacrifice. If we want to forgive in the way that He did, then we must follow His teaching of "denying ourself, taking up our cross, and following Him". This injunction may appear difficult and arduous, but with much prayer and gift of God's grace and blessing, we can follow His will and be faithful to the end. It will not be all the time that we can do so. And there will be indeed times when we cannot find it in our heart to forgive our brother. Wounds indeed take time to heal. And it also depends on many factors that are often beyond our control. But let us have faith that God is in control and that in the end, goodness will be victorious. That the ideal of service and not power and domination will prevail. Let us pray that we shall always have the faith to see and to believe that we will be always forgiven by the Lord for our human weakness and frailties and that we too shall have the same strength from the Lord to forgive our brother from the heart.

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"If he listens to you, you have won your brother over."

Lectionary Readings for the 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/23rd-sunday-a.html

We often experience people correcting us or we ourselves correcting others. It could be actualized or done sometimes in our thoughts and hearts through prayer. Whatever be the way we correct others, most of the time, the reaction of the one corrected is, "who is he to say that to me?". This reaction is one of pride. It is very rare for people to accept correction because humility is very rare. It is a very important virtue but one people do not really seek for. For it is in humility (how we see ourselves before God), that we discover what is the reason for the correction.

Jesus tells us that if we see a fault in our brother and go point it out to him, it should be done amongst ourselves alone. Only when our brother refuses correction do we appeal to a third party so that there may be witnesses in the case. At this level, the "legal" situation is somewhat serious. However, if the correction is only something personal and does not really involve anything serious, we can easily appeal to God to grant us the humility to receive the correction or we can pray to God that the person we corrected will also appeal to God to grant him the gift of humility. If however, the case involves more than just the personal level, then this is something that can be taken to others. In law, it means "appealing to a higher court".

Correction is good because it helps us in our pathway to God. If we do not correct others, we will be not doing our Christian responsibility of leading others to God. On the other hand, if we ourselves do not accept correction, then our pathway to God will be blocked and we will never grow in our relationship towards Him.

Let us pray that we Christians will always pray for the gift of humility before the Lord because it is this virtue that will help us correct our brother in the right way and for ourselves to accept correction in the right way. The pathway to humility is not easy but it is made available to us through the example of Christ himself who sought more to serve than to be served. Let us always have an attitude of a servant-leader who leads others by example to serve their brothers and sisters by teaching them that the pathway to God, the pathway to Jesus, the pathway to the eternal life promised to us, is through humility and service.