The WORD
today (see http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100117.cfm)
reminds me that what's important to God is not the initial, but the
final action.
In the game who wants to be a
millionaire, the contestant is given choices. After analyzing the choices and
picking an answer, the host will ask if it is the final answer. If the
contestant says yes, then thats the time the choice will be compared to the
correct answer. It is not a touch move game wherein the first choice is the
final. The same is true with God.
God looks at
our final answer. Our final action and decision will be judged, not the initial
one.
In the first reading, the
wicked men referred to are the sinners and outcasts at that time, while
righteous men are the scribes and pharisees. God gives chances to sinners, to
wicked people to change their ways and follow God. Maybe they have not known who
God really is. Maybe they're just waiting for someone to guide them to
repentance. That is why God is waiting for them to repent and he will save
them. However, the righteous already know what to do and how to act. So if they
do evil, it is with the knowledge that it is indeed evil, and it shows they are
choosing wickedness over good, so they will be punished even if they did good
works before.
In
the gospl, Jesus repeats this concept. What is important to God is our actions,
not our words. Talk is cheap. It is easy to say good things. It is harder to do
them. And even if we initially do not choose to do good, if eventually we
change, then God is pleased. He considers our final decision, our final action
- to love him or hate him.
We all sin. We all hurt God. And
we all have the opportunity to choose God,
or choose wickedness. God
does not judge us by our sins, but by our heart. Our heart
determines our final action, our final answer. The state of our heart will determine if we choose God or
wickedness. Then when we make that choice, that's the time we
will be judged.
May we take comfort in the fact
that God does not judge us by our initial actions, and make the most of every
opportunity to repent and choose God.
Father God,
Thank you
for today. Thank you for another day to live. Thank you for another Sunday.
Thank you for another chance to love and serve you. Thank you for all the
blessings. Thank you for your patience and love for me. Lord, sorry for my
sins. Sorry for hurting you. Sorry for the times I choose wickedness instead of
you. Help me live right. I want to be with you. Help me see you and choose you
in the little decisions in life, so that as I live, I will be consistently
showing you what my final answer is. Amen.
Blessed
Sunday!
In
Christ,
-g-
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 136
Reading 1EZ 18:25-28
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 PsalmPS 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Reading 2 PHIL 2:1-11
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.
OrPHIL 2:1-5
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.
AlleliuaJN 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 21:28-32
"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."
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