Have you ever caught yourself – or someone else – doing something wrong and blaming your parents – or their parents or their upbringing for it? We all do it, often without thinking about it. It’s easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility ourselves. For example, in ancient Israel, it was believed that when a person was afflicted with a disease or suffered some personal tragedy, it was the result of a sin he/she had committed. And, if he/she had not committed a sin, it was the result of the sins of their parents or grandparents. Remember the time when Jesus and his disciples encountered a blind man and the disciples asked Jesus whether he was so afflicted for his own sins or the sins of his parents? They recalled what God had told Moses and the people Israel when he gave them the Ten Commandments: “I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ sins on the children of those who hate me, down to the third or fourth generation.” It was a way for them to understand evil, especially when there didn’t seem to be any other explanation. And, it was sometimes a way for them to excuse themselves – they could blame their forefathers for their misfortune. Don’t we often find ourselves doing the same?
It is against this background that we hear Ezekiel reveal something new about God. As you may remember, Ezekiel prophesied to the people Israel while they were exiled in Babylon. And, they blamed their parents for their misery in their exile. As we hear in today’s first reading, however, Ezekiel reveals that a person lives or dies as a consequence of his own actions, not the actions of his ancestors. In saying this, Ezekiel is calling the people to admit their own sins, take responsibility for their lives and change their ways.
Jesus calls the people of his own time to the same task. Today’s Gospel passage recounts an encounter that Jesus had with the chief priests and scribes after he had upset the money changers’ tables in the temple. The reason he had done this was because they were overcharging the pilgrims who came to offer sacrifice at the temple. Jesus explains his actions with the words of Jeremiah, who condemned the people of his time – some 600 years earlier – by standing at the entrance of the temple and telling them, “Thus says the Lord, ‘my house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” Remember, the den is not the place where thieves commit their robbery. It’s the place where they retreat to after they have robbed others. They go to their den for security and to count their booty. The Jewish leaders in Jesus’ time were receiving a cut from these exorbitant charges brought against the pilgrims and counting their gains in the sacred temple area rather than focusing on leading the pilgrims in worthy sacrifice to God.
In the passage that we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus clearly intends the chief priests and elders to see themselves as the second son, who tells his father that he will go work in his vineyard but doesn’t. They are entrusted with caring for their people but they’re caring only for themselves. It’s the people known to be sinners – the prostitutes and tax collectors who have admitted their sins and changed their ways – who are like the first son who changes his mind and goes to work in the vineyard.
In both readings – the one from Ezekiel and today’s Gospel – we are confronted with an important truth about God and us. Words are not enough; deeds show our true intent. You will recall that in another parable, Jesus compares those who hear the word of God but do not live it to someone who builds his house on sand. We all know the end of that parable: the house is washed away and all is lost.
If we are honest with ourselves, we admit that, throughout our lives, we need to become more and more like Jesus who, as we hear in today’s second reading, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, humbling himself to do the will of his heavenly Father. Rather than seeking our will and fulfilling our plan, we are called to seek the Father’s will and fulfill his plan – that is, to work in his vineyard building up his kingdom. And, we come to learn that plan for us by carefully listening to God speak to us. We cannot do that if we are too busy listening only to ourselves and the world around us.
That’s why it’s so important for us to pray every day and to gather around his table to listen to his saving words. And, we need to be nourished by our Lord’s life-giving Body and Blood to have the strength to do his work. And so, we rejoice in a special way as two among us will receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the very first time.
But, what do these events of long ago – in ancient Babylon and Jerusalem – have to teach us today? As we continue to endure this coronavirus pandemic, don’t we feel like we’ve been taken from our homeland and been sent into exile? Without even leaving our homes, we’re feeling as if we’re living in a foreign land – even another planet! And, so many of our leaders – political and scientific – have demonstrated that they are more interested in taking care of themselves than the people under their care. It’s so easy for us to blame them. But, today’s readings call us to be concerned about ourselves – not others – and to make sure that we are continuing to do the Father’s will, just as Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Jesus did in their day. Our Lord, Jesus, even though we was God, was always ready to do his heavenly Father’s will, even to the point of death. And, by dying, he brought us the gift of new life and the ability to do the will of our Father in heaven.
How blessed we are to know – through the eternal word of Sacred Scripture – that God does not punish us for our sins – nor the sins of our forefathers. But, God does call us to be his faithful children, to listen to his commands and work in his vineyard here on earth as we build up his kingdom. Especially now, as we constantly face the possibility of suffering and death, we realize that we do not have a lasting kingdom here on earth – that’s awaiting us in heaven. Let’s not waste our time finding fault in others but focus on turning always to do the Father’s will. Then God, our heavenly Father, who is always merciful, will not remember the sins of our past but lead us to a fuller life here on earth – and the fullness of life with him forever in his heavenly kingdom!