Gospel: Doing the Father's Will

Today marks the Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Gospel reading will be lifted from the synopsis of St Matthew.

What is yoir opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, "My boy, 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? They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "In truth I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you, showing the way to uprightness, 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 Gospel for this Sunday is about who actually follows the Father's will. From last week's reading, we have learned the immense generosity of God, and because of this, his overflowing divine grace flowed from the redeeming cross of Jesus Christ so that all those who believe in him will be saved.

The question now is who are the people who actually believe in Jesus Christ. In today's reading, we are presented with a story of two sons and who actually followed their father's instruction. The disciples unanimously answered that it was the first one, that although he said that he did not want to go to the vineyard but later on changed his mind and actually went there.

It is not really important what our lips say, or what we say we believe if we will not translate it into actions. Doing the will of God is a verb. Love is a verb and it is wanting of actions. Our words should be matched with acts of kindness, charity, and obedience. For God did not only redeem us with his powerful word, but he also showed us the way of the cross. He taught us about the sanctifying grace that sacrifice coupled with love and humility conquer death and sin. 

Jesus even mentioned that there are tax collectors and prostitutes that are entering heaven than those chosen people of God. It is because they have never listened to God's prophets and repent for their sins. For the people of Jesus's times honor God with their lips but their hearts are very far from God. They lack love, and they can never extend mercy to others because of this.

Amen.

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The Gospel is sponsored by Tokyo Tokyo.