REPENT AND OBEY a homily for the 26th Sunday in Year A

You can listen to the audio here.
Think for a moment how much advertising we are subject to.  Chances are it is only the more obvious stuff that we notice.  We are the objects not just of attempts to get us to buy more, but of attempts to get us to think in certain ways.  Modern psychology and technology have furnished the tools to do so.   While some of these messages are harmless there is much that is at variance with the Gospel.   These are the false or pseudo-gospels that sound like Christianity but are not.  One big idea being pushed is that we should ‘follow’ our heart or our feelings.  We are being taught and urged to deal with important issues by our feelings and not by reason.  Yet reason is a God-given faculty of the soul.  It enables us to do solve problems in all aspects of our lives, to do science and to understand the mysteries not only of the Universe but, to a certain and limited extent, even those of God.

In last week’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel we were reminded that we labour for the Lord in the Lord’s vineyard, that is this world and not for ourselves.  We labour by doing our duty to our spouse, family, employers, neighbours and our pastors, while avoiding and opposing evil and doing good.  The work we do is the cultivation of the virtues and the doing of good works.   Part of this labour is the rejection even of evil thoughts for “Sin speaks to the sinner in the depths of his heart” and if evil thoughts are not rejected they become the root of evil words and deeds.   In this Sunday’s passage the son who was disobedient was first disobedient in his thoughts before he disobeyed in action.  The other son, though likewise disobedient in his words, responded to grace and obeyed, thus earning his father’s blessing.

That’s what the Lord wants of us: repentance and obedience.  Our Lord is not saying sinners are going to Heaven without repentance.  There can be no salvation without repentance and confession of our sins and subsequent obedience to God’s will.  What our Lord is saying is that there are those who are listening to the Gospel call to conversion, repenting of their sins and turning to a life of holiness and that this is a sign to us of God’s power and action in the world.  It is happening.  Within the last few months I have heard the confessions of those who were years away from the Faith, living evil lives, who have now returned to Christ and His Church.  As the Fathers of the desert would say “Count no one lost before the Day of Judgment.”  They would also add that we should never presume on our own salvation.

Our God and Saviour demands a real conversion from us, a conversion manifested by obedience not just to the Natural Law, the law of right and wrong that is known to our reason, but even to the higher law of self-sacrificing love.  Only by repentance and conversion to obedience to the Lord can we attain Eternal Life.  We cannot stay the same and claim to be Christians.  If we do not seek to change and grow in holiness then we are sliding back into evil and growing old in wickedness.  We do not get to decide right and wrong for ourselves.  Right and wrong have been decided by God from the beginning of creation.

The Lord is telling us that it does not matter that we have not obeyed at once, what matters is that we recognize our error, repent and obey by putting His teaching into practice.  His teaching is not something at odds with reality or our best interests.  His teaching meshes seamlessly with the world as it really is and when we follow it we flourish.  When we disobey then there is chaos and disorder.  For we are not only labourers in His vinyard we are also the vines that He tends.  We are grafted onto Christ from Whom we draw life and nourishment.  He prunes us with His teaching so that we grow into all that we can be and bear the fruit that leads to Eternal Life.

His teaching does not change just as right and wrong do not change.  You would think that is obvious yet today even in our universities people are being taught that there is no objective moral order, that right and wrong are ‘cultural constructs’ and that by changing our language we can change our reality.  If you take that seriously and apply it to life one ends in chaos and totalitarianism. 

For instance we can see that even if our Lord had not been Divine it was still wrong to condemn an innocent man.  It was just as wrong then as it is now.  By acknowledging that it was wrong we also see that the moral order exists, always has existed and always binds us.  It guides us as to how we ought to behave.  This order comes from God and is part of His plan for us, for our flourishing. 

So whenever the Church teaches that killing the innocent is wrong (such as in abortion and euthanasia), or contraception is wrong, homosexual acts, or stealing or deliberate lying, she is pointing out to us what we can know by reasoned reflection on what it is to be human.  She is giving us not human opinions but God’s plan.  Some might object that they are all very different so how can they all be mortal sins?  They are so but for different reasons.  Is child abuse less evil than murder?  In reality when it comes to evil there is no grading system.  Evil can never be freely done for any reason.

If we want to enjoy Eternal Life then we need to tune out the false gospels peddled by the world around us, to be familiar with our Faith and its demands and to check our consciences regularly.  By this means we learn to be always watchful of how we treat our God and our neighbour and slowly, by His grace, we can grow in obedience, faithfulness and fruitfulness in good deeds.