Catechism Links
CCC 1807: Just person distinguished by habitual rectitude toward others
CCC 2842: Only Holy Spirit can give us the mind of Christ
CCC 1928-1930, 2425-2426: The obligation of social justice
CCC 446-461: The Lordship of Christ
CCC 2822-2827: “Thy will be done”
CCC Cross Reference:
Phil 2:1 2842; Phil 2:4 2635; Phil 2:5-8 461; Phil 2:5 520, 1694, 2842; Phil 2:6-11 2641, 2667; Phil 2:6 449; Phil 2:7 472, 602, 705, 713, 876, 1224; Phil 2:8-9 908; Phil 2:8 411, 612, 623; Phil 2:9-11 449, 2812; Phil 2:9-10 434; Phil 2:10-11 201; Phil 2:10 633, 635
Mt 21:28-32 546; Mt 21:32 535
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Reading 1
Ez 18:25-28
Thus says the Lord:
You say, "The Lord 's way is not fair!"
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
he does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Your ways, O Lord, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O Lord,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O Lord.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the Lord;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Reading II
Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
or
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus.
Gospel
Mt 21:28-32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
"What is your opinion?
A man had two sons.
He came to the first and said,
'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'
He said in reply, 'I will not, '
but afterwards changed his mind and went.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.
Which of the two did his father's will?"
They answered, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.
When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and prostitutes did.
Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds and believe him."
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Ezekiel 18:25 – 28
You object, “What the Lord does is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24(25):4-9
Remember your mercy, Lord.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
In you I hope all day long
because of your goodness, O Lord.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth.
In your love remember me.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.
Remember your mercy, Lord.
EITHER:
Second reading Philippians 2:1 – 11
If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, So that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead. In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus:
His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings in the heavens,
on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Alternative second reading Philippians 2:1-5
If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, So that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead. In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus.
Gospel Matthew 21:28 – 32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, ‘What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, “My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not go,” but afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, “Certainly, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did the father’s will?’ ‘The first’ they said. Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
From: Ezekiel 18:25-28
The Good Effects of Conversion
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[25] ”Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? [26] When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it; for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die. [27] Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life. [28] Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die."
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Commentary:
18:21-32. These verses reply to a question that may arise from the doctrine of personal retribution: If the sinner must live with the consequences of his sins, what is the purpose of repentance? Ezekiel takes the question very much to heart, and his reply includes one of the most beautiful summaries of divine mercy: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked..., and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’ (v. 23; cf. 33:11). It is true that the explanation of divine justice and punishment develops over a long period until the New Testament is reached; even so, from the very beginning of divine Revelation, there is never any doubt but that God is always ready to forgive. Over the centuries, Christian spirituality has written beautiful pages filled to overflowing with heartfelt trust in God’s mercy. As an example, we will quote a prayer by a Christian writer of the Armenian Church: “You are the Lord of Mercy. Have mercy on me, a sinner, who beseeches you with sighs and tears. [...] O kind and merciful ord! You are patient with sinners, for you have said: "if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed none of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him" (Ezek 18:21-22). Look, see how I have come before you and fallen at your feet: your guilty servant pleads for your mercy. Do not recall my sins, nor spurn me because of my wickedness [...] You are the Lord of goodness and mercy; you forgive all sin” (John Mandakuni, "Oratio", 2-3).
Of course, God’s forgiveness is closely interwoven with personal conversion. Therefore, it is not surprising to find these verses of Ezekiel being quoted in connection with the need for the sacrament of penance: “at all times, the practice of penance in order to obtain grace and attain righteousness was necessary for all those who fell into mortal sin, even those who sought to be washed clean by the waters of baptism, so that, when sinfulness had been purged and set to rights, they would detest any offense against God through their hatred of sin and the sorrow of their souls. Thus says the Prophet: 'Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin' (Ezek 18:30)” (Council of Trent, Session 14, 1). There is also a need for genuine contrition: “Contrition, which is the most important element of penance, is a sorrow of the soul, a hatred of all the sins that have been committed, and a desire not to sin again in the future. This sense of contrition has always been a fundamental condition of forgiveness; the man who falls into sin after his baptism can only receive pardon if he is contrite, trusts in the mercy of God, and fulfills all the other conditions that are binding in this sacrament. This Council declares that contrition encompasses not only the end ofsin and the beginning of new life, but the reparation of the old, sinful life, as it was written: 'Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!'" (Ezek 18:31) (Council of Trent Session 14,4).
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From: Philippians 2:1-11
Unity and Humility
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[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-emptying
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[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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Commentary:
1-4. Verse 1 begins with a very awkwardly constructed clause, which the New Vulgate and the RSV translate literally. It is a conditional, rhetorical clause, rather than an affirmative statement, and its meaning is clarified by the rest of the sentence.
St Paul is making an affectionate appeal to the Christian good sense of the faithful; he seems to be saying: "If you want to console me in Christ, complete my joy by paying attention to the advice I am now going to give you" (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Phil, ad loc.").
The Apostle recommends that they should always act humbly and with an upright intention (vv. 3-4) if they want charity to reign among them (v. 2). In their work and social life ordinary Christians should be upright in all their dealings. They should go about everything, even apparently unimportant things, in a humble way, doing them for God. But they should also remember that their behavior has an effect on others. "Don't forget that you are also in the presence of men, and that they expect from you, from you personally, a Christian witness. Thus, as regards the human dimension of our job, we must work in such a way that we will not feel ashamed when those who know us and love us see us at our work, nor give them cause to feel embarrassed" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 66).
This fact that our behavior can encourage others and set a headline for them means that we need to act very responsibly: "Let us try therefore, brethren," St Augustine says, "not only to be good but to conduct ourselves well in the eyes of others. Let us try to see that there is nothing that our conscience upbraids us for, and also, bearing in mind our weakness, do all that we can, to avoid disedifying our less mature brother" ("Sermon 47", 14).
3-11. Verse 3 exhorts us to see others as better than ourselves. Our Lord, although he was our superior in all respects, did not see his divinity as somethingto boast about before men (v. 6). In fact, he humbled himself and emptied himself (vv. 7-8), was not motivated by conceit or selfishness (cf. v. 3), did not look to his own interests (cf. v. 4), and "became obedient unto death" (v. 8), thereby carrying out the Father's plan for man's salvation. By reflecting on his example we shall come to see that suffering for Christ is a sign of salvation (cf. 1:28-29): after undergoing the sufferings of his passion and death, Christ was publicly exalted above all creation (cf. vv. 9-11).
Our Lord offers us a perfect example of humility. "The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Scepter of God's Majesty, was in no pomp of pride and haughtiness--as it could so well have been--but in self-abasement [...]. You see, dear friends, what an example we have been given. If the Lord humbled himself in this way, what ought we to do, who through him have come under the yoke of his guidance?" (St Clement of Rome, "Letter to the Corinthians", 13).
3-4. "'In every man,' writes St Thomas Aquinas, 'there are some grounds for others to look on him as superior, according to the Apostle's words, "Each of us must have the humility to think others better men than himself" (Phil 2:3). It is in this spirit that all men are bound to honor one another' ("Summa Theologiae", II-II, q. 103, a. 2). Humility is the virtue that teaches us that signs of respect for others--their good name, their good faith, their privacy--are not external conventions, but the first expressions of charity and justice.
"Christian charity cannot confine itself to giving things or money to the needy. It seeks, above all, to respect and understand each person for what he is, in his intrinsic dignity as a man and child of God" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 72).
5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus', requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he was offering himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ' (Gal 2:19)" (Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 22).
6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he is--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practised.
This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God and man.
The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine nature and which His human nature has merited.
The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.
Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. "We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," St. Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or human ambitions.
"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is Passing By", 62).
6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God."
"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).
"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.
Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after death.
Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. "What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself" ("Oratio I In Beatitudinibus").
This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking the initiative to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty, all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to approach their Redeemer." (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).
8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, "He did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, He took birth upon Himself in order to die" ("Oratio Catechetica Magna", 32).
Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc."). In St. Paul's time death by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even death on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious of deaths.
His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the Father's will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient: His obedience was active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own. He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility is present when one debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. On Phil., ad loc.").
Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love for us, for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one with Him, for love "seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication, His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 236).
9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord Himself foretold this when He said, "He who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His humiliation. The Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's glorification affects his human nature only, for "in the form of God the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" (St. Leo the Great, "Promisisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christ's humanity by virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the human nature He took on.
For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God (Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe. Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing something that belonged to the very core of his personality. Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name which is above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human nature the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the entire universe.
St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all created things. Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when referring to the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal sovereignty of Yahweh: "To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used here by St. Paul is the word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."
The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross present in our ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross (Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey God's will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no matter how many" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).
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From: Matthew 21:28-32
The Parable of the Two Sons
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(Jesus told the chief priests and the elders,) [28] "What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' [29] And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterwards he repented and went. [30] And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go. [31] Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. [32] For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him."
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Commentary:
32. St. John the Baptist had shown the way to sanctification by proclaiming the imminence of the Kingdom of God and by preaching conversion. The scribes and Pharisees would not believe him, yet they boasted of their faithfulness to God's teaching. They were like the son who says "I will go" and then does not go; the tax collectors and prostitutes who repented and corrected the course of their lives will enter the Kingdom before them: they are like the other son who says "I will not", but then does go. Our Lord stresses that penance and conversion can set people on the road to holiness even if they have been living apart from God for a long time.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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