by Fr. Gregory-David Jones, O.S.B.

      Jesus asked the chief priests and elders their opinion about a situation involving two sons.  Both of them committed an offense against their father.  One dishonored him by verbally denying his request while the other disobeyed him by failing to do the work that he said he would do.  While both sons committed different offenses, however, the total story reveals a very important aspect of our ongoing discipleship in Christ.

     At times we may feel that the needed conversion relates more to the first son’s change of mind after disrespecting his father’s request, while the story of the second son is about simply concepts such as sloth, hypocrisy or a lack of religious seriousness.  But the first son’s change of heart can be a point of personal reflection on the second son’s failure to act.  We can ask ourselves, “Do my actions contradict my commitment to the Lord or profession of faith?” 

     Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew (7:21), Jesus exclaimed, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”  We constantly acclaim and proclaim Jesus as Lord in our Creeds, liturgies and personal prayer – a title that means He has preeminence in every aspect of our lives.  So, the betrayal of our profession of Christ as Lord can manifest itself in our thoughts, words and actions in various degrees, in different ways and in different aspects of our lives.

     It takes personal honesty and humility for us to come to grips with the reality that we can be like the second son who says, “yes” or “amen” to our Lord, but demonstrate, “no” by our failure to act according to his proper place in our lives.  More importantly, this ongoing conversion, this relentless transformation, requires God’s grace (our reliance upon his help) so that we can become a clearer reflection of Jesus who came to do the will of the Father and accomplished it.

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