First Reading – Ezekiel 18:25-28 ©
Responsorial
Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-9 ©
Second
Reading – Philippians 2:1-11 ©
Gospel
Acclamation – John 14:23
Alternative
Acclamation – John 10:27
The Gospel According to Matthew 21:28
- 32 ©
(NJB)
The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary
Time (Year A)
Be mindful of the teachings
of the prophet.
As much as
we might wish it to be so, divine justice is not an analog of human justice, even
when human justice is being represented at its best.
The
goodness or wickedness of a human being is not based on the sum of their
actions, as if you could measure their merit or weigh them in a scale. The
relative values of good and evil are considered in relation to a person’s disposition
and orientation to those values.
No human
can judge the ultimate value, in terms of good and evil, of any person deeds,
including their own. The things we do go out from us and take on a life of
their own. Good intentions have harmful consequences, and evil deeds have good ones.
This is one of the great mysteries. The things a person does in their life
continue to shape the world long after they are gone; what matters in terms of
merit or culpability is the intention that motivates the action and the
reflection that follows.
Consider
the words of the psalmist.
Lift up
your spirit and give your life to God, the creator of the universe, to God who has
given you everything.
Do not
expect God to take sides with you in any conflict, because God loves all of
God’s children equally. God does not discriminate. God does not pick favorites.
If you ask
God to punish the faithless and the promise breakers, you must know that you
are asking God to punish you—yourself.
Pray for
wisdom and guidance, knowing that God desires for you be well, but God has made
you and all of creation free, God will not intervene in the course of your
life.
God is
merciful, and God has allowed for your existence even knowing of all your
crimes; Giod has known these since the beginning of time. God will forgive you
for them but God will not forget them.
Remember; all
the ways of God are kindness and mercy.
Walk
humbly, love justice, act with mercy and compassion. This is the way of
faith, which is trust in the Good News; the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
God is not
concerned with glory. Jesus is not interested in having a name above all other
names. Jesus is not a price or a king, he was our friend and brother.
Do not
worry about bending the knee, just confess the truth that God is love, reflecting
the love of God in your own life, in all the things you do.
Love
fosters love, but there is always love and God is always with you.
Be mindful
of this: the grace of God is not transactional.
Everyone who is, everyone without exception, follows
in the way God has set for them, there is no other way. Do not trouble
yourself if you do not understand the journey that another person is on, God is
guiding them, just as God is guiding you.
If you resist, God will be patient.
If you delay God will wait, as God waits for
everyone out of a superabundance of patience, kindness and love.
Believe!
God will not lose a single one of us; none of us will
be lost to God. God is with us and there is no place where God is not.
Consider the gospel reading for today, it is a piece
of pure politics.
The
writers of Matthew’s gospel are making a direct appeal to the remnants of John’s
followers, which is a recurring theme in Matthew, who would have us believe
that John and Jesus were cousins.
The
writers of Matthew are doing everything they can to bring John’s followers into
the way, into the new church, both by convincing them that Jesus was the
heir to John’s ministry, and by convincing the new church to accept the
outcasts, to bring them in and not treat them as outsiders.
The
words in the Gospel appear to be directed to the chief priests and elders of
the temple, as well as the rabbinical authorities who were the leaders of the
synagogues outside of Judea, but at the time Matthew’s gospel is being written
they temple had been destroyed and the Jews had been scattered.
In
reality these words are being addressed to the leaders of the new church,
telling them to make room for the outsider, for the tax collector and the
prostitute and the Children of Israel who were fleeing Judea in exile, those
remnants of the people looking for safety and comfort in a new home.
First Reading – Ezekiel 18:25-28 ©
When the Sinner Renounces Sin, He Shall
Certainly Live
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows:
‘You object, “What the Lord does is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is
what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man
renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because
of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to
become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce
all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.’
Responsorial
Psalm – Psalm 24(25):4-9 ©
Remember your mercy, Lord.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach
me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are
God my saviour.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love
you have shown from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth.
In your love
remember me,
because of
your goodness, O Lord.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the
path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches
his way to the poor.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
Second Reading – Philippians 2:1-11 ©
Be United in Your Love
If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love
can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness
and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with
a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me
completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but
everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better
than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody
thinks of other people’s interests instead. In your minds you must be the same
as Christ Jesus:
His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his
equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and
became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to
accepting death, death on a cross.
But God raised him high and gave him the name which
is above all other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the
underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue
should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Acclamation – John 14:23
Alleluia, alleluia!
If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my
Father will love him, and we shall come to him.
Alleluia!
Alternative
Acclamation – John 10:27
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice, says
the Lord, I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to Matthew 21:28
- 32 ©
Tax Collectors
and Prostitutes Are Entering the Kingdom of God Before You
Jesus
said to the chief priests and elders of the people, ‘What is your opinion? A
man had two sons. He went and said to the first, “My boy, you go and work in
the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not go,” but afterwards thought
better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second
who answered, “Certainly, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did the
father’s will?’ ‘The first’ they said. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you
solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom
of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but
you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even
after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.’
The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary
Time (Year A)
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