26th Sunday in Ordinary Time A Cycle Homily by Fr Mathew

Ezekiel 18:25-28

Phil 2:1-11

Matthew 21:28-32

At my previous assignment I had a school. Therefore every week I had to do a children's Mass and a children's homily.  Every now and then I would invite a group of  children to the front for a special homily, One day I  brought a smoke detector and  displayed it during the homily. I told them it was a smoke detector. Then I asked them, "boys and girls, "do you know what it means when the alarm goes off?". One of the boys by name  David immediately raised his hand and said, “It means Daddy’s cooking dinner.”

Dads are often dissed, aren't they?

In 2007, Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers filed a lawsuit against God for breaching the contract. In the lawsuit he accused God of not protecting people from floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, contagious plagues," and the like. The lawsuit was dismissed by the judge on the grounds that God doesn't have a legal address; therefore he can't be summoned to appear in court.

God is in the dock. That is what we read in the book of Ezekiel. People complain against God, “The Lord’s way is not fair.” God challenges their complaint through the prophet: “Is it my way that is unfair or rather, are not your ways unfair?

God speaks through Ezekiel. If we commit inequities we will die in our sin. On the other hand if we turn away from our sins, we will live. Repentance and transformation is the central theme in the first reading.

Coming to the gospel, we see the same underlying idea. A father asks his first son to go out to  his vineyard and he refuses to obey ; but  later he repented and did go to the vineyard. He went to the second son and did the same. The second son said he would go, but did not go to the vineyard. Obviously it is the first son who carried out his father’s will.

It is interesting that in Matthew we don’t read the parable of the prodigal son. We read that parable in the Luke’s gospel. I find similarities between these two parables. The first son who initially refused to go out to the vineyard in today’s gospel is very similar to the youngest son in the parable of the prodigal son. Both didn't obey their father, but later repented and reconciled with their father. The second son in today’s gospel who said “yes” to his father is very similar to the oldest son who always obeyed his father. But he was reluctant to accept his youngest brother and refused to dance with his father.

Jesus addressed this parable to confront the fake spiritual life of  Pharisees who were very meticulous about religious practices.  Many a time we think that spiritual life consists in a bunch of religious practices. Don’t get me wrong; they are important. In fact there is more to our spiritual life. Christianity without conversion and transformation is like a dead horse.

God is not nearly as concerned about polite words and appearances. The Gospel is about repentance and change. But the Gospel is about more than change, it is about transformation, about being changed to be something more like God.

We who claim to be wonderful Christians -who go to church, read the bible, and stand for pro-life-  presume that we always say “Yes” to God,”  but there is a danger that we can become like the oldest son in the parable of the prodigal son who is arrogant, judgmental and contemptuous in his attitude toward his youngest brother and to his father. That is why there will so many surprises in heaven. We will see the least expected in heaven.

The second reading of Paul to the Philippines takes our reflection to a different realm and teaches us how we can grow in our spirituality by what we have been doing. When you wear a nice perfume, people recognize your presence and say, “you smell good. Tell me what kind of perfume you’re wearing?” I want to ask you this question: “do you smell like Jesus? ‘I doubt that any of us have ever given that question much thought.

Well, if you want to smell like Jesus, you can buy a perfume by name “Virtue.” It is made in California. They claim that if you wear that perfume, you will smell like Jesus.

So there you have it. You, too, can smell like Jesus. It may sound ridiculous, but it does lead us to a much more profound thought.  Max Lucado says in his book “Just like Jesus,” “God loves you just the way you are", writes Lucado, "but he refuses to leave you that way.”

Now there is a statement you can take home with you. “God loves you just the way you are,  but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be like Jesus”

Many of us like the first part, “God loves you just the way you are.”  We want God to accept us just as we are. And when we come to the second part we say, “Please leave me alone,.”  Because we hate change.

This is Paul’s message: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."

When we do these things we are not far away from the Kingdom of heaven.