26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
What a year 2020 has been! What hasn’t happened this year? The most recent happening is the great divide in the Catholic Church in America between the Democratic Catholics and the Republican Catholics. Catholic Christians have picked sides based on political ideologies and party beliefs and not on the gospel of Christ as taught in teachings and doctrines of the Catholic Church. Our gospel reading today, urges us to ask ourselves this question, "how do I as a Christian respond to God’s call to be his disciple in the world today?" Jesus in today’s gospel reading from the gospel of Saint Matthew 21:28-32 tells us the story of how two sons responded to their father’s request to go out and work in his vineyard. The first son responded negatively but later changed his mind and did as his father wanted. The second son responded positively but never did as his father wanted. These two sons represent the type of Christians in existence during the time of Jesus as well as their attitude towards God. The first group are the ones who responded positively to God’s call to be his disciples but are not living out the gospel of Christ and adhering to the demands of discipleship. This group of Christians are the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees as mentioned by Jesus. The second group of Christians are the ones who responded negatively to God’s call to be his disciples then later changed their lives for good by living out the gospel and following the footsteps of Christ. This group of Christians are the tax collectors and prostitutes. So what group do you fall under? Do you say ‘yes’ to God and later switch it to a ‘no’? Or have you said ‘no’ to Him then changed it to a ‘yes’ later? Do not forget that just as the father in the gospel reading called on his sons to go out and work in his vineyard, so are we called as Christians and disciples of Christ to do so in our world and especially in our country today. Are we really out in the world today working for God? Have we abandoned or left the teachings of Christ and the doctrines of the Church for the ideologies and beliefs of the world that go contrary to our call to discipleship and the kingdom of heaven?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is time to go out into the world and work for the Lord. Today’s gospel reading is a wake up call for us Christians to truly and sincerely embrace and accept the gospel and teachings of Christ and stop being fake and phony. Like the father in the gospel reading requested of his sons, to go out and work in his vineyard, it is indeed time to go out into the world and make the gospel of Christ known by hearing/listening to his word, by accepting his word we have heard and by living out the word of God and the gospel of Christ we have heard and accepted. Amen!
