28 “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father[a] went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. [Matthew 21:28-32, NRSV]
Parable of the Two Sons, by Andrey Mironov 2012.
As the days wind down towards Christmas, it is good to take stock of what we have done and failed to do during the year. Sinners we all are. The question is whether we are repentant or hypocritical. That was the question Pope Francis left with the faithful of Bologna to contemplate during his one-day pastoral visit to the northern Italian city, Oct. 1, 2017.
To the father’s request to go and work in his vineyard, the two sons in the parable respond differently. One says no, but later goes in to work; the other says yes, but then never shows up. There is a great difference between the two, as the first appears to be lazy, while the second is hypocritical. If we examine our life of discipleship honestly, we are liable to find ourselves falling short pretty often in our willingness to say “yes” with both words and actions. In what way might we be acceptable to Jesus? Pope Francis gives his counsel:
- Imagine what goes on inside the two sons. “In the heart of the first, after his no, the father’s invitation still resounded; in that of the second, instead, despite his yes, the father’s voice was buried. The memory of the father awakened the first son from <his> laziness, while the second, who although he knew the good, denied what he said with what he did. He had in fact become impermeable to the voice of God and of his conscience, and thus embraced without problems a double life.”
- Take seriously our journey of conscience. “Christian life is the humble journey of a conscience that’s never rigid and always in relationship with God, which is able to repent and entrust itself to Him.” Hypocrisy, duplicity, and detachment from others are denounced by Jesus and go against this. In the end, there are two roads in each one’s journey: to be a repentant sinner or a hypocritical sinner.
- Note that the key word is to repent. “it’s repentance that enables one not to become stiff, to transform the no to God into yes, and the yes to sin into no, out of love for the Lord. The will of the Father, who speaks delicately every day to our conscience, is fulfilled only in the form of repentance and continual conversion.”
The Holy Father makes clear that in the end what counts is not our clever reasoning that attempts to justify and try to save “outside” appearances. This is modeled by the second son who “had in fact become impermeable to the voice of God and of his conscience, and thus embraced without problems a double life.” He is, in reality, a “seated sinner”, always ready to justify themselves and only in word according to what is convenient. The Holy Father then turns to Jesus’ social context in which he struggled with the religious leaders. See how closely that resembles Pope Francis is currently faced with as he struggles with some stiff leaders within the Catholic hierarchy today.
- “Jesus addresses this parable to some religious leaders of the time, who were like the son with the double life, while the ordinary people often behaved as the other son. These leaders knew and explained everything, in a formally unexceptionable way, of true intellectuals of religion. However, they didn’t have the humility to listen, the courage to question themselves, the strength to repent. And Jesus is very severe: He says that even publicans will precede them in the Kingdom of God. It’s a strong reproach, because publicans were corrupt betrayers of the homeland. What, then, was the problem of these leaders? They didn’t make a mistake in something, but in their way of living and thinking before God: in word and with others, inflexible custodians of human traditions, incapable of understanding that life, according to God, is to be on the way and He asks for the humility to open oneself, to repent and to begin again.”
The Lord who seeks the pure of heart, delights in our struggles “inside”, in a heart that is willing to struggle daily, in order to repent and return to Him. So the Holy Father suggests that we choose to be, not seated sinners, but “sinners on the way”, who remain listening to the Lord and when they fall, repent and rise again, as the first son. What we need to overcome, Pope Francis said, “are the reviewed and update editions of that ancient evil denounced by Jesus in the parable: hypocrisy, duplicity of life, clericalism that is accompanied by legalism, detachment from the people.” This is Amoris Latitia re-visited.
For a practical application of the parable of the two sons, the Holy Father, who never misses an opportunity to remind the people of their responsibility to the Poor, lamented that “still today many persons lack what is necessary” and that Jesus is found among them. We must stop making pledges, talking good and looking good in our seats; get up and act for real.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, November 2022. All rights reserved.
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