Eze 18:25-28; Ps 25; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32
True Humility and Conversion
Dear friends, today is the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time. A popular saying goes, “Do not judge a book by its cover.” How many times do we look at people and pass judgment upon them, only to realize later, when we get to know them better, that we were wrong about them?
Jesus also warned us: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father” (Mt 7:21-23).
Conversion is possible. People who used to do bad things can convert and become good. Likewise, people who used to do good can also turn to evil. Therefore, we must be careful before we pass judgment on others.
Today’s readings are connected by the themes of humility and conversion. In the first reading, Ezekiel tells us that if a wicked person is humble enough to recognize his or her bad ways and turn to what is good, the Lord will forgive his or her sins. However, if a good person turns to evil, his or her good past will be eroded by the bad choices of the present.
I have heard people say that sometimes God is not just when they see people whom they considered wicked thriving while those they consider good are suffering. Well, using our own judgment and standards, we label people as good or bad. However, God’s judgment is not based on appearances but on the person’s interior: the intentions, motivations, struggles, and so on. We look at the outside, but God looks at the inside.
Sometimes we regard ourselves as good, or even perfect, according to our own standards and attitudes toward our actions. However, when our lives are subjected to external criteria, we could discover that we are very wrong. The best measure of what is good is always the yardstick of Jesus. If all our actions, words, and thoughts toward others were guided by the example of Christ, then we could say that we are good.
St. Paul urges us to imitate Christ, who, though he was God, did not consider his divine status a cause for arrogance. Instead, he emptied himself and became lowly.
Jesus’ lowliness was, and still is, what conquers the hearts of many and leads them to conversion. In our times, however, the preaching of the Gospel has sometimes become a means of achieving personal glory and power for the preacher. The tone, the setup, and the equipment used in worship today do not always demonstrate humility but rather power and greed for wealth. Christian worship has, in some places, turned into a business of miracles and prosperity. Where is Christ’s humility in all this?
Sometimes, or many times, we promise people things that we are not even planning to deliver. We make promises only to look good and to be admired by others. People in big positions pledge large donations during fundraising events in order to look great and use the platform to advance their own selfish political ambitions. After the fundraising, they are nowhere to be found. The people go home with large figures in their minds. The intended projects fail to take place because people continue waiting for the pledges to be fulfilled.
In the Gospel passage today, the man who asked his first son to go and work in his vineyard must have been very disappointed by his son’s outright refusal. Of course, this is understandable because he was the father, and the son ought to have obeyed his instructions. However, after giving it some thought, the first son realized that he was wrong in disobeying his father. He therefore went ahead and accomplished what was required of him.
The second son accepted immediately and promised to do the job, but he did not. The father must have been pleased with him and may even have planned to bring him a gift on his way back. Sometimes we behave like the second son simply to look good.
Jesus is not praising the first son for disobeying his father. Rather, he is highlighting the fact that the son changed his mind and did what was asked of him. Repenting alone is not enough. We have to go a step further and accomplish what is required of us. Appearing to be good while doing the opposite is what Jesus condemns.
People whom we may consider evil because we judge them from the outside, or because of the stories we have heard about them, may actually be much better than us on the inside. Hypocrisy is something that Jesus condemned vehemently. God looks into our hearts and not merely at what we want people to believe about us.
My dear friends, it does not matter how much makeup we put on ourselves to make people believe that we are good. What matters is what we really are. When we go back to our rooms and are alone, let us ask ourselves: Are we truly good, or do we spend a lot of energy and resources pretending to be good?
We might be wasting a lot of precious time because, in the end, pretense, just like makeup, is washed away and reality is revealed. Let us ask Jesus to help us embrace true conversion.
Have a blessed Sunday.
Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD
