Sept. 28, 2008: “He changed his mind and went”
Every day of our life we face many challenges. Every time, we are called to improve our life and we strive to make progress despite failures. We are asked to change, to adapt ourselves to situations or to change situations. There is no change without hope but also fear. There is no change without promise but also uncertainty. There is no change without relief but also anguish… What will be the future when there is no clear and positive sign at first sight or when we can’t handle properly the situation? As Christians and believers, we try to find God’s will in the small or big events of our daily life. We measure our fidelity to his Word. We discover with humility the gap between our desire to observe his commandments and the limits of our human nature.
Today’s Gospel does ask us to make a choice of trust, a choice of obedience to God’s will. It is a story about two sons called to do their father’s will. They both changed their mind in different ways. The first said “I will not do your will’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The second replied with enthusiasm: “Yes, Sir” but he did nothing. We have two changes: to accept with lips but to refuse doing the task. To refuse but to accept doing the father’s will . It is a conversion for a better life in tune with God’s will. As said the prophet Ezekiel: “by turning from wickedness, a wicked person shall preserve his life.
What is the meaning of these behaviors? Let us call in mind that Jesus is talking to Jews: Pharisees, publicans, priests, tax collectors, prostitutes etc… Among these listeners, some –like the Pharisees and the priests- consider themselves as pure, good, excellent, perfect. They accepted God’s call. They know the Torah. They pray every day. To God, they reply: “Yes, Sir”. But they don’t want to change their life. They are comfortable in the statu quo. Their “Yes, Sir” was just a polite refusal. They did not believe John the Baptist. Challenged by Jesus message, they are really moved and they can say “Yes, Sir”. But they are not able to move on. They fear to leave their zone of comfort and to face Christian of Christian life. Among the other group of listeners there are publicans, prostitutes, tax collectors etc… In public life, they do not have good reputation. They are known to have said ‘No, Sir’ to God’s will. They collaborate with the Roman occupant. They lead a life of lustfulness and so on. But in their private life, they are people in search of salvation. They struggle with their conscience. They need change but they entangled in the trap of need, vice, or darkness. When they hear Jesus preaching about God’s compassion, they are touched and they are relieved from the anxiety of doing wrong. They are ready to do God’s will in their life.
For sure we are no longer dealing with Pharisees and Publicans. We are not dealing with two brothers whose words and acts don’t match. But it is the same Jesus message we are hearing right now. It is the same call to change our heart, our mind in order to do God’s will. Do we want to evaluate the impact of God’s word in our daily life? For sure we are delight with God’ Word and we always reply ‘Thank be to God’. But if it is easy to hear God’s word, it is not always easy to discern his will in our life. Let’s pray that we may be steadfast to do his will. We need to ask God more love. Only when we love that we may do something good. We need to ask the grace of discernment because sometimes in some difficult situation of our life, we struggle to find the right decision. Let us pray that the desire to serve God may prevail against any selfishness and hesitation.
Karma-Yoga
