26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Doing the Will of God
Every Sunday Eucharist, God invites us to take a risk in leaving behind our own values, attitudes and thinking and embrace God’s values, attitudes and thinking. In other words, every Sunday when we attend the Eucharist God invites us towards conversion–embracing God’s new way of thinking (metanoia). The strongest response to God’s invitation for conversion is a commitment and act of faith expressed most profoundly by the word Amen. Amen is a Hebrew word that comes from the Hebrew root “AMN”, which means “so be it”, “I agree”, “let it be so”. It means yes in the deepest sense of the word. It is a positive commitment both in word and action to the will of God.
The readings of today’s 26th Sunday, once again, is an invitation from God to overturn our ordinary ways of thinking and conform to God’s thinking. The readings invite us to say amen to God’s ways and thinking both in word and deed.
In the First Reading from the prophet Ezekiel, the people in power complain to God that “The Lord’s way is not fair!” We are reminded of last week’s parable where the workers complained about the latecomers who were given a full wage.
The religious and political leaders during Ezekiel’s time were complaining about God’s fairness because they perceive that God is favoring evil and immoral people over them. Ezekiel explained God’s action by implying that a person who had lived a good life for a long time but in the end turned bad would “die in his sin“. On the other hand, someone who had lived a very immoral life for a long time but turned round and accepted God at the end would live. What matters in God’s eyes is one’s deeds not one’s status, ancestry or race.
The responsorial psalm admonish us to align our ways with God’s ways. “Lord, teach us your ways!” The psalm is a call to conversion to change our ways and learn from God’s ways not just in word but more so in deed.
In the Gospel, Jesus shocked the religious leaders of his time by saying that notorious sinners are ahead of them in entering the kingdom of God. “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Indeed, what matters most to Jesus is not words, honor and other external religious practices but actually doing the will of his Father. In the parable of the gospel today, Jesus did not ask which son behaved honorably. He asked: “Which of the two did the will of his father?” It doesn’t matter what was our initial response, how much have we done or who comes early or late in answering the call of the Father as long as in the end we finally do the Father’s will.
What is so reassuring from our readings today is that God is primarily concerned with our present relationship to him. As far as the past is concerned, God has a very short memory! In fact, we might say God has none at all.
In the Eucharist we are all invited to shift our human ways of thinking and say amen to God’s ways. We can do this by uniting ourselves with the mind of Christ who according to St. Paul in the 2nd reading:
“Though being divine in nature, he did not claim in fact equality with God, but emptied himself, taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness, and in his appearance found as a man. He humbled himself by being obedient to death, death on the cross.”
One with the mind and heart of Jesus, let us ask Jesus in this Sunday’s Eucharist that we may always say Amen to his Father’s will.
It is never too late to start. Let’s begin today.
I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today's digital world.
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