Looking to the needs of others
At Sunday School, they were teaching the children how God created everything including human beings. Little Johnny, a child in kindergarten, seemed especially interested when they told him how Eve was created, out of Adam's ribs. Later in the week, Johnny's mother noticed that her son acted as though he were ill. So she asked him, "Johnny, what's the matter?" Little Johnny replied, "I have a pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife!"
Conversion. That's what Johnny thought was going on inside of him and that's what God wants to happen inside of us. Conversion is not a painless thing either. It hurts because something about us is dying, so that something better could be given life. Our readings today all speak boldly about conversion plans God has for each of us. In our first reading, God speaks through the Prophet Ezekiel, calling us to change our judgments of how God acts in the world and also our judgments of God when he sometimes seemingly chooses not to act. "Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?" In a single verse, God shifts the focus from him to us, rhetorically asking us to go inward, to see how our sinful judgments originate in our own lack of self-reflection and conversion of life. When is the last time we judged God for something? When was the last time we looked into our own hearts and found them lacking? If we fail to seek interior conversion, we will inevitably end up on a path of self-destruction. This is God's point here. The degree to which we commit to converting our own selves and seek to make them vessels of God's love and holiness in the world is the degree to which we cease blaming God for everything that goes wrong in our lives or in the world. That's why he asserts, "When the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life."
In our second reading, Paul invites us to let God germinate whatever seed of goodness lies dormant within us and to let it grow and bear fruit, to build up God's Church, the People of God. He urges, "If there is ANY encouragement in Christ, ANY consolation from love, ANY sharing in the Spirit, ANY compassion and sympathy then……be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind……Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." Do we do that? Do we make a conscious effort to consider the needs of our family, our nation, our world, our community of faith before our own? Do we seek to be in union of heart and mind with the hierarchy of the Church, our governmental leaders, our parents, our employers? Or are we constantly bucking the system, criticizing the decisions of those in authority, looking out for our own comforts, our own conveniences, and fortifying our own little kingdoms? Jesus Christ wants us to look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others, uniting ourselves in love, sharing, compassion, and sympathy to each other, striving to be of one mind and heart.
Lastly, in our Gospel for today, Jesus makes a bold assertion, which is intended to shock the chief priests and elders into conversion. "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you!" Why did Jesus make such a bold, inciteful statement? Because he was fed up with people paying God lip service. Yes Lord, I'll do that for you. Yes Lord you know I love you. Yes Lord, I will not hesitate to follow you. And no sooner do the words come out of someone's mouth, that the person forgets what he said and does his own thing and takes care of his own concerns, rather than fulfill his obligations toward God or toward God's community. Have we ever found ourselves in that condition? Have we ever taken on a commitment of service to God, like the first son in our Gospel story, and, out of selfishness or laziness or indifference, failed to live up to our responsibilities?
If we are honest with ourselves and truly seeking conversion, each of us could probably remember at least one time when we were guilty of failing to live up to our responsibilities. Yet rather than letting our failures drag us down, we need to see today is a new day, a day that we can re-commit ourselves to serving God and our neighbor more faithfully. --Like the son in our Gospel story. At first, he didn't do what was expected of him, but later, upon reflection he went ahead and did it. That Son did the will of his father and received the reward of his labour.
Each of us who has been baptized into Christ has taken on a responsibility to serve God with our whole selves, using whatever he has given us to bring the Kingdom of God closer to its fulfillment. What are the responsibilities God has given me? Am I a parent? A godparent?
A grandparent? A spouse? A child? A preacher? A teacher? A business person? An artist? A…..You fill in the blank and then ask yourself the following question: Am I taking my responsibilities seriously or am I only paying God or my significant others lip service? What will it take for me to convert my life? Am I willing to undergo the sacrifices or pain such a conversion might require of me?
My brothers and sisters, Jesus knows how difficult conversion is. That's why he's given us the Holy Spirit, to aid in the transformation process. It's the Holy Spirit who changes us from the inside out and enables us to do what we thought was beyond our abilities or our time schedules. It's the Holy Spirit who causes those seeds of goodness to germinate within us and to bring forth bountiful fruit as Members of God's Kingdom. So let us never give up on ourselves. Rather, let us get in touch with the Holy Spirit within us and allow him to open us up to the process of conversion.
