By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
True People of the Reign
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 1, 2023
Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2: 1-11; Matthew 21: 28-32
The whole of last week, the Word has been challenging us towards rebulding the ruins, in terms of establishing the Reign of God, calling our attention to the fact of being deserving or not, towards being people of the Reign. Today we have another teaching, the need to choose between the constrasts, present in our day to day expereience that we ccould be true people of the Reign.
Of what use is it to have been righteous, if we fall from that status in the walk of life. We are painfully reminded of persons in today’s scenario who were once upon a time recognised by the whole world as persons of peace and persons dedicated to justice and truth… but the very same persons when they join hands with the evil, either actively supporting it or by remaining mysteriously mute, thus passively allowing it. Is it not much better to have been been sinners, who repent from their prior experiences and reorganise their lives in sincerity and grow more and more acceptable in the eyes of God? This is what Ezekiel presents to us today: it is better to be penitent sinners than to be fallen righteous.
Being leaders does not make us by default important people. Once again, the leaders we witness in today’s scenario prove to be sheer counter witnesses of the values that they claim to uphold. Threatening the whole world with military powers, creating cross border tensions with non-stop insinuations causing indignance and misunderstanding, joining hands with the affluent and being part of an agenda that serves the powerful few instead of the entire humanity – these have become our daily experiences these days. What are these but self-conceited treacherous elements, who care nothing about the common good and world peace?
There is another group we can see in the society, those around us, who get down to the streets and protest this madness; they put their own life at stake for the good of the common persons; they don’t mind losing time, energy, livelihood, comfort and consolation, provided they can make their choice for good, clear, strong and uncompromised. They are like Christ who was ready to empty himself of everything for the sake of God’s will.
The choice is ours today: to be on the way of the self-conceited leaders or to be self-emptying servants – we know well, which of these choices takes us closer to the Reign, according to the mind of Christ.
At times we run the risk of speaking too much, promising too much, propagating ourselves too much and justifying ourselves too much by our words and arguments. It would not be long before we realise how hypocritical we can get.
Just because we are outspoken, we need not be right. At times in the name of being straight forward, we end up being rude – it is a choice, a choice between truth and self-righteousness. One is saying the truth in such a way that it can be taken, while the other is saying the truth in such a way that I wish to establish it that only I know it.
Preaching, judging, “filial correcting”, all these are fine… but to what end? They are like the first son in the parable who shows off that he is so obedient and trustworthy by his empty words! Empty words and arguments won’t take us far. What is important is to convert, to repent, to rethink our lives, look from Jesus’ eyes, put on the mind of Christ, think as He would, act as He would, decide as He would and choose as He would… it is to be silent and to go on doing the will of the Father – a silent servant rather than an outspoken hypocrite!
We are caught between contrasts today. We need to make up our minds, each of us, to which community we would like to belong – to those persons who are on the side of power and domination or to the community of persons who are struggling to make themselves heard, who are suffocated due to their hunger and thirst for true justice, who are trying to voice their feeble cry towards true peace and wellbeing of all.
If I have to be truly close to the Reign I need to choose between these contrasts: to be a penitent sinner than to be a fallen self-righteous bigwig, to be a self-emptying servant than to be a self-conceited leader, and to be a silent convert than to be an outspoken hypocrite!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.