26th Sunday of the Year (A)

Edited for September 27, 2026: From Sunday reflections Year 2014 (A)

September 28, 2014
Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm 25
Philippians 2:1-11
Matthew 21:28-32

"Which of the two did what the father wanted?"

In this parable from Jesus, He tells the story of a father who has two sons. The father owned a vineyard and wanted his sons to work in it. The father ordered his two sons, one after the other, to work in their vineyard. The first son replied "yes", but did not go and do as his father told him. The second son was a direct opposite to his brother. He said "no", but regretted it and decided to go and work in the vineyard. After Jesus finished telling this parable, He turned to those who listened and asked them: "which of the two did what the father wanted?" And the people all replied, "the second son".

This parable, as in the previous Sunday's, can also make an analogy to the reign of God. The father who owns a vineyard with sons who can work in it, is like God who asks us to work in "His vineyard". If we examine our relationship with God, we can see many times when we said "Yes", but failed to obey Him like the first son. But, when we examine our relationship with God again from another perspective, there were also many times when we have said "No", but had a change of mind and heart and went and obeyed Him like the second son: we did as the Lord wanted; to do our part in building His Kingdom.

Examining the parable again more closely, we see the importance of action over one's word. Surely, the ideal is to be men and women of integrity, that is, we "do as we say", or "we walk our talk". Integrity is not cheap. It is the result of a discipline in work and life. But even when we say the wrong thing, or if at first we did not obey what ought to be done, there is always time to have a change of mind and heart. And the second son in the parable shows us that reality of our humanity.

So like the parable of the laborers in the vineyard last Sunday, God does not give up on any of us. He wants all to listen to Him, work in His Kingdom and be saved. He continues to move in ways that we do not recognize at first, but upon deeper prayer and reflection, we see His will and discover ourselves in relation to Him. We discover how we may have been like the "first group of laborers who complained on the wage they received" and the "first son who said 'Yes' but did not go to the vineyard". But we can also discover the many times we are like the "last group of laborers who received a day's wage for working only an hour" and the "second son who said 'No' at first but repented and went to work in his father's vineyard."

The example "par excellance" of this Sunday's gospel is Jesus our Lord. He is the "only Son" who said "Yes" to the Father and went and did His Father's will. We see in the Person of Jesus our Lord that integrity is really not cheap. It cost Him His life on the Cross to be the best example of a Son to a Father for all of us. That is why Jesus instituted the Eucharist so that we may receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity - the Bread from Heaven. For it is in the Eucharist that we are strengthened and encouraged to say "yes" and work for our Father's Kingdom as He did by His very example.

Scripture quotes for reflection:
"Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way." (Psalm 25)

Notes: The text of the gospel used in this Sunday's reflection is from "The Sunday Pocket Lectionary" which is based on the Confraternity Edition of the Holy Bible. The Confraternity Edition is based partly on the Vulgate, the translation of the Bible text to Latin by St. Jerome. According to a response to a prompt to an LLM, this translation presents the elder son as saying "yes", but not going. If your bible translation is the Douay-Rheims, the Knox Bible, the Challoner Revision, or any text of this parable from the older Catholic lectionaries and missals, then they also relied on the Vulgate text. As for the version of Mt 21:28-32 which has the older son say "no" at first, but then repented and said "yes" to work at his father's vineyard, these are seen in modern Bible translations which relied on the original Hebrew/Greek sources of the text. These variation of the text are seen in such modern Bible translations as the Good News Bible, the Revised Standard Version and the NRSV, the Jerusalem Bible, and the New American Bible.