First
Reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28
Responsorial Psalm: 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: Philippians 2:1-11
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32
A certain man was imprisoned because he was a thief.
After he had spent a couple of years in prison he was finally released but
reaching home everything had changed and even the neighbors and friends were
making mockery of him. So when someone asked him how was he felling with all
the shame and what was he planning to do since he was already old, then he
answered: I don’t care about what i have done nor do i care about what people
say about me what is important is that I no longer live that life now and i
will try to at least do good in the few years of life that i have.
Today the mother church gives us the
opportunity to reflect about the mercy of God towards those strive sincerely to
Him. In the first reading prophet Ezekiel presents God who
tempers justice and mercy “when a righteous man turns to evil will die but if a
sinner turns to righteousness he will surely live”. The Israelites had the
conception that if one has been righteous throughout the life but at last at
last becomes wicked; his previous righteousness could save him. So, the prophet
knowing the reality he was in, he addresses this message to them showing that
God is both just and merciful.
The same scenario we find in the Gospel Reading and at
the end of the Gospel Jesus affirms that the sinners prostitutes etc may enter
the kingdom of God before those who considered themselves as righteous. How
many times do we despise people? How many times do we judge people as more
sinners than we are? How many times do we discourage people who want to convert
to the Lord?
Dear friends, in our Christian life we are always
reminded of the eschatological events such as end of the time, judgment, the
second coming of Messiah etc. and when this time comes we won’t be judged
according to the time we have been Christians, rather on how committed we are
to this Christianity. Like the thief who did not care of what he had done and
what would the people say of him, God does not care on how much we have fallen
but rather how much efforts do we use to stand after the fall and how much
energy do we use in order to not fall again. In order to be converted to the
Lord we are given one way in the second reading which is to avoid selfishness
just like Jesus who accepted to die on the cross because of our sins. Saint
Anthony Mary claret understood this constant conversion which was based on the
service of the others that is why once he said “my spirit is for the whole
world. So let us pray that God may give us the necessary graces we need to be
truly Christians living what we preach.
Geremias Armando Carlos
IV Year Theology
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