26th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Reflection: Open yourself to other perspectives
By SISTER MARY McGLONE
A friend recently asked me, “How do you think God looks at what’s happening in the world?”
Shortly after that, I began to contemplate today’s first reading. Listen as God complains about our grievances: “You say I’m not fair! Who’s really unfair in this universe? It seems to me that you like to freeze people in place, deciding that people will forever be what they once were. … What about allowing for a bit of change?”
This comes from Ezekiel 18. Scholars such as Margaret S. Odell suggest he was refuting the proverb, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” That would make this a teaching about individual responsibility — which is surely one way that we can understand it. At the same time, if we read Ezekiel in the light of today’s other two readings, we might discover a different approach.
First, a look at Jesus’ parable about two children. In this vignette, a father needed help in his vineyard. When he sent his children, one of them committed the unthinkable offense of openly defying the father — an attitude tantamount to denying that he was father to him or her. (The Greek word translated “sons” does not designate a gender.) The second child responded with great formal respect but did nothing to satisfy the father’s need.
Obviously, neither child acted rightly. One defied the father, the other replied politely and then rendered the words meaningless. Then Jesus says that the disrespectful child had a “change of mind.” We use that phrase lightly, but the Greek original, metamelomai, suggests a deep emotion, an adjustment of a person’s basic priorities. This change of mind implied a refocusing of values, internalizing the father’s desires — a course of action that effectively (and affectively?) reversed the original insolent “not-your-child” response.
The people who replied to Jesus’ question had to swallow hard before saying which child did the father’s will. How could they say that a child who acted disrespectfully was in the right? (Would it have been worse if the child were a girl?)
Interestingly, Matthew’s infancy narrative subtly anticipates the gist of this parable. In telling of Jesus’ origins, Matthew focused on Joseph. As a righteous and merciful man, he intended to divorce Mary, the unwed mother, in quiet — until an angel caused him to change his mind. As a result, he transgressed the formal law, doing instead what he perceived to be God’s will.
This week, our second reading casts an unexpected light on the other readings. When St. Paul calls his community to allow Christ’s mind to be active in them, he refers to both attitudes and actions. Christ’s mindset (attitude) led him to ignore the status often attributed to God — the sort of prestige that would allow him to do whatever he wanted and awe others.
Christ Jesus presented himself as the anti-celebrity, the servant son who revealed that God is not like we might like to think. Jesus revealed a God who waits for people to come around to internalizing the divine will — no matter how long it takes or how much they may resist along the way. It appears that God prefers scandal to lip service.
What if the answer to Jesus’ question were, “Both children did the father’s will — at least in part”? Neither was an ideal child. One made a display of proper respect, but never incarnated that verbal devotion in deed. The other gave the appearance of being sacrilegious but carried out the father’s will.
What if we took this parable as an invitation to stop dividing people into camps, contrasting Republicans and Democrats, pro-lifers and the ecology-minded, liberals and conservatives, and on and on? Both children failed the father, and both respected him. What about a conclusion that says they were to learn from one another and from the attitude of Christ, who was telling the story?
This solution may not satisfy any of us — some want to cling to respect and others demand action. If we resist the idea of learning from the other, we must be hearing these readings correctly — the Scriptures are supposed to challenge us. In our selection from Ezekiel, God puts our dissatisfaction on trial. Jesus tells a parable exposing the incompleteness of opposing understandings of God’s will. Paul then invites us to take on the mind of Christ who lived and died without defending his own interests in any way.
Today’s reading calls us to identify honestly with one of the children and then to really listen to the other. This is the kind of dialogue Pope Francis says will create a synodal church. The Gospel is always a call to metanoia, to the change of heart and mind that opens us up to other perspectives — including God’s own!
First Reading
(Ezekiel 18: 25-28)
Thus says the LORD:
You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair!”
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
he does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14)
Reading 2
(Philippians 2: 1-11 or 2: 1-5)
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel
(Matthew 21: 28-32)
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
“What is your opinion?
A man had two sons.
He came to the first and said,
‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
He said in reply, ‘I will not, ‘
but afterwards changed his mind and went.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.
Which of the two did his father’s will?”
They answered, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.
When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and prostitutes did.
Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds and believe him.”