October 1, 2023- 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
In the Gospel of this Sunday, Jesus gives us a parable of two sons, one of them is rebellious and the other is a pleaser, who says what someone wants to hear without doing what he promises. The rebellious son is resentful of being asked to work in the vineyard and lacks of respectful response, but ultimately corrects himself and goes to do what his father asked him. Instead, the second son pleased his father with positive answer, but failed to make it happen in reality distracted by his own personal interests. It is obvious, that the first son even with his initial rebellion, later goes to do the will of the father. The second son seemed to be right in response at the beginning, but never did the will of his father. The apparent knowledge of the will of his father, was not enough to win over his laziness, procrastination and personal interests.
Jesus compares this situation with the behavior of the sinners, who do wrong things at times, but ultimately the experience of life brings them back to God, as true source of all happiness. More difficult is with self-righteous people, who being self-sufficient and self-fulfilling do not see the need of turning to God.
In the second reading Saint Paul invites us to be humble in considering of ourselves and of others, without being selfish and seeking vain glory. He gives us a description of Jesus attitude, that is one of the most beautiful statements made about Christ from Philippians 2:5-11:
"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death; even death on a cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Saint Paul, gives us this most beautiful description of the attitude of Jesus and tells us how through humility and obedience Jesus fulfilled God's purpose and will. Subjecting himself to the cross and gaining salvation for all, Jesus gained power for his name to subject all things to himself for the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is the son who understands the Father, knows his will, and humbly cooperates with the plan for the good of all, making it a total success for everyone who turns to his name for rescue and salvation.
Do we need to be rescued and saved? What is it, that we need Jesus for in our lives? Let us then pray for the lesson of humility, that we be able to draw strength from what Saint Paul revealed to us about the attitude of Christ, that we will become humble to follow the example of Jesus and learn to follow in his footsteps, for the good and for salvation of our own and for all. Jesus saved all souls!!!
What often we want from God is a miracle of: God doing what we want. When in reality the true miracle happens when we do what God wants us to do, because that’s the best thing for our salvation.
God bless everyone always!!!
Fr. Stan
