September 27, 2026
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 136
Reading 1
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,
and 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
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 2
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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."
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092726.cfm
Commentary on
Ezekiel 18:25-28; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32
Today we are presented with another challenge by Jesus to
the religious leaders of the people. It consists of a parable about two sons
whose father operates a vineyard. He tells one to go and work there. The lad
refuses, but later changes his mind and goes. The second one is also told to
go. He agrees to do so, but in the end he does not. Jesus asks:
Which of the two did the will of his father?
They all agree that it was the one who at first would not
go, but later did so.
In case there was any doubt, Jesus then clearly spells out
the meaning of his story. Tax collectors and prostitutes, perhaps the most
despised of all people from the religious leaders’ point of view, were making
their way into the Kingdom of God before the chief priests and the elders. In
their eyes, it was a shocking and dreadfully insulting thing to say. As proof
of what he says, Jesus reminds them that they refused to believe John the
Baptist who “came to you in the way of righteousness” when he called people to
repentance. On the other hand, the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe.
And even after that, the priests and elders refused to do so. They were there
watching, but felt that John’s words did not concern them.
Outrageous
In the eyes of the priests and elders, the idea that tax collectors and
prostitutes should enter the Kingdom before them was outrageous. The very idea
that such evil and immoral people should take precedence over the religious
leaders in God’s eyes would be totally unjust. It might have helped them to be
reminded of what the prophet Ezekiel says in today’s First Reading:
…you say, the way of the Lord is unfair.
The Lord replies:
Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not
your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their
righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that
they have committed, they shall die.
And the Lord also says:
…when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have
committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.
Here Ezekiel is saying exactly the same thing as Jesus and
it is something we all need to listen to carefully. It means, for instance,
that a person who had lived a good life for a long time, but in the end turned
bad would “die in his sin”. On the other hand, someone who had lived a very
immoral life for a long time, but turned round and accepted God at the end
would live.
Jesus is applying this, first of all, to his listeners. They
and their ancestors had a long tradition of following God’s Law, but now, faced
first with John the Baptist and then with Jesus, the Son of God, they refused
to listen. On the other hand, Gentiles who had lived godless or idolatrous
lives for generations are now turning to Jesus and opening themselves to his
teaching and his healing power.
Again, as we have said elsewhere, it is not for us today to
pass judgement on the religious and political leaders of Jesus’ own people.
Rather, we have to see what this incident is saying to our own Christian lives
here and now.
Two messages
There are two messages coming out loud and clear. On the one hand, we
can never be complacent about our relationship with God. It is possible for any
of us at any time to find ourselves falling away from our commitment to Jesus
and to his gospel. And God always accepts us where we are. If we are in union
with him, things are well; if we have by our own choice become separated from
him, he accepts that too. His love and his grace are always available, but they
can be rejected and spurned—and we can “die in our sin”.
On the other hand, no matter how far we have strayed from
God and Jesus in the gospel, no matter how depraved we have become, it is never
too late to turn back, and we can be absolutely sure that a warm, no-questions-asked
welcome is waiting for us.
We remember the parables in Luke’s Gospel about the lost
sheep and the lost (prodigal) son. It is the meaning of the dialogue between
Jesus and Peter after the resurrection—“Do you love me…?” Three times Peter
had, in pure fear, used oaths to deny he ever had any connection with Jesus.
Now, repentant, chastened and humbled, he comes back. Not only is he forgiven,
his mandate to lead the community remains intact. Peter’s repented sin, far
from being a disqualification, will make him a far more understanding leader:
Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep”.
No punishment?
Is there no punishment for the sinner then? We can say that there is
indeed. The sinner basically punishes himself. The punishment is built into the
very sinfulness. This is what Ezekiel is saying today:
Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair?
It is not altogether uncommon to hear people complain that
God is unfair to them. But God responds that a good person who violates his own
integrity to do something evil dies in sin, precisely as a result of the evil
he has done.
Our self-seeking, our hate, anger, aggression, violence,
jealousy, resentments and our greed and avarice, all lead to isolation, loneliness
and hostility with others and often to physical and mental stress and
breakdowns. Sin, which is a refusal to respond to God’ loving us, brings its
own inevitable punishment. Our sins often leave wounds which take a long time
to heal. God does not need to punish us; we do that very well by our own
choices.
Real source of sin
However, we need to identify where sin really lies. Sin is not just a
violation of a rule or a law. It is a violation of our very nature. It is not
just in the violation of certain rules and commandments. To be away from Sunday
Mass is considered a sin. But why? Where is the sin? To act with violence, to
steal, to fornicate, to lie and to be avaricious are all regarded as sins. But
why? Are they sins because the Church says they are? Are they sins because the
priest in confession says they are? Are they sins because parents or other
authority figures say they are? Are they sins because a list in a prayer book
says they are?
Something is sinful because it is wrong, because it is evil.
Something is sinful because it denies love and respect for God and for the
dignity, the rights and integrity of others. They are the sins not only for
Catholics, but for anyone who does them. God, Truth and Love do not belong to
any religion. And sin, as a violation of our needed relationship with God—Truth
and Love—brings nothing but pain and loss. We have no one to blame but
ourselves.
Dialogue of the deaf
Today’s Gospel is clearly directed at the religious and civil leaders of
the people in Jesus’ time. They spoke much about God and, in particular, how
God was to be served by a strict observance of the Law. But it is clear they
did not have the spirit that Jesus was communicating through his life and
teaching—the spirit of love, compassion, caring and forgiveness for the weak
and vulnerable. These leaders also heard the teaching of Jesus, but made no
effort to carry it out. They excused themselves by challenging Jesus’ legal
authority to do what he was doing. Because Jesus did not fit into the
parameters of their legal world, they could not classify him and they rejected
him.
On the other hand:
…the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into
the kingdom of God ahead of you.
They certainly were not keeping God’s Law. They had said
‘No’ to his commandments many times. But then they met Jesus and they
experienced a radical transformation (Greek, metanoia) in their lives.
They listened and they responded.
The chief priests and the elders are like the second son in
the Gospel. They say ‘Yes’ to obeying God, but they do not listen to Jesus, the
Son of God, or follow his instructions. The sinners, the outcasts of both
Jewish and gentile society, are like the first son. They do not obey
God’s commands and they commit many sins, but later they accept the
teaching of Jesus and become his followers.
What about me?
What is clear from this Gospel and from the First Reading is that God is
primarily concerned with my present relationship to him. As far as the past is
concerned, God has a very short memory—in fact, we might say he has no memory
at all! This is the ‘unfairness’ of God that Ezekiel mentions. We remember the
man who was crucified with Jesus on Calvary. He was a major criminal, a
brigand, a robber, perhaps a murderer. There, in the very last moments of a life
of murder and mayhem, he asks pardon and forgiveness:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.
Jesus’ reply comes instantly, without any qualifications
whatsoever:
Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
(Luke 23:42-43)
How unfair! How unjust! We are reminded of last week’s
parable where the workers complained about the latecomers who were given a full
wage.
However, it would not at all be a very good idea to think
that I could live a life of total selfishness with the intention of making a
last-minute deathbed conversion. Apart from the riskiness of such a gamble,
such a decision would be quite short-sighted.
It is a totally false idea that to base one’s life on the
gospel is somehow to step outside the mainstream of human living and do
something unnatural or ‘supernatural’. For believers and non-believers alike,
this is probably the saddest misconception of all. On the contrary, it is the
gospel life vision that is totally human and totally in harmony with our
deepest aspirations. If we want true fulfilment and happiness, it is this Way
that has to be seized as soon as we become aware of it.
Emptying oneself
In the Second Reading we have the magnificent hymn about Jesus’ own
spirit of service and selflessness. Paul says this in the context of a plea for
greater unity in the Christian community at Philippi. In urging the Christians
to serve each other’s needs with the deepest respect, he asks them to have the
mind of Jesus himself, to think like he does. And he illustrates this by
quoting what seems to have been an early Christian hymn. It speaks of the
awesome dignity of Jesus as the Son of God. Yet Jesus did not emphasise this in
his life among us. On the contrary he “emptied” himself and became just like
us. He went further and took on the status of a slave and ultimately accepted
human death, and the most shameful of all possible deaths, death as a convicted
criminal on a cross—a barbaric form of execution.
If we were to be filled with that same spirit that Jesus had
we would have nothing to fear. And what wonderful places our Christian
communities would be—places of harmony and unity, of love and caring, of
compassion and mutual support and of looking after each other’s needs. Let us
remember, it is never too late to start. In fact, let’s begin today!
https://sacredspace.com/commentary/oa261/
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us to read the
Scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to
Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, You helped them to
discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and
death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them
the source of life and of resurrection. Create silence in us so that we may
listen to Your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in
people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we
too, like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, may experience the force of
Your resurrection and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as
source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, son of
Mary, who revealed the Father to us and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading – Matthew 21: 28-32
A Key to Guide the Reading:
Jesus recounts a very common event in family life. One son
says to the father, "I’m going!" but then does not go. Another son
says, "I’m not going!" but then goes. Jesus asks his listeners to pay
attention and express an opinion. In our reading let us be attentive so as to
discover the precise point to which Jesus wishes to call our attention.
A Division of the Text to Help with the Reading:
•
Mt. 21: 28-31ª: The comparison
•
Mt 21: 31b-32: The application of the
comparison.
The Text:
28-31a: 'What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went
and said to the first, "My boy, 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?' They said, 'The
first.'
31b-32: Jesus said to them, 'In truth I tell you, tax
collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before
you. For John came to you, showing the way of uprightness, 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.’
A Moment of
Prayerful Silence
so that the Word of
God may enter into us and enlighten our life
Some Questions
to help us in our
personal reflection.
•
Which point in this story of the two sons most
caught your attention? Why?
•
To whom does Jesus address Himself? Why does He
tell this parable?
•
What is the main point underlined by Jesus in
the attitude of the two sons?
•
What kind of obedience does Jesus suggest
through this parable?
•
How exactly do the prostitutes and publicans get
preference over the priests and elders?
•
And I? Where am I? Am I among the prostitutes
and sinners or among the priests and elders?
A Key to the Reading
for those who wish to
go deeper into the text
The Context Within Which Matthew Places These Words of
Jesus (Matthew chapters 18-23):
•
The context of Matthew’s Gospel within which
this parable is found is one of tension and danger. After the Discourse on the
community (Mt 18: 1-35), Jesus leaves Galilee, crosses the Jordan and begins
His last journey towards Jerusalem (Mt 19: 1). Long before, He had said that He
was to go to Jerusalem to be apprehended and killed and that then He would rise
again (Mt 16: 21; 17: 22-23). Now the time has come to go to the capital city
and to face prison and death (Mt 20: 17-19).
•
When He arrives in Jerusalem, Jesus becomes the
subject of conflict. On the one hand the people welcome Him joyfully (Mt 21:
1-11). Even children acclaim Him when, with a prophetic gesture, He expels the
sellers from the temple, and He heals the blind and the lame (Mt 21: 12-15). On
the other hand, the priests and doctors criticize Him. They ask Him to tell the
children to keep quiet (Mt 21: 15-16). The situation is so tense, that Jesus
has to spend the night outside the city (Mt 21: 17; cf. Jn 11: 53-54). But the
following day He goes back early in the morning and, on the road to the temple,
curses the fig tree, symbol of Jerusalem, a fruitless tree bearing only leaves
(Mt 21: 18-22). He then goes into the temple and begins to teach the people.
•
While He is speaking to the people, the
authorities come to discuss with him. Jesus answers them one by one (Mt 21:
33-22: 45), the high priests and the elders Mt 21: 23), the Pharisees (Mt 21:
45; 22: 41), the disciples of the Pharisees and of the Herodians (Mt 22: 16),
the Sadducees (Mt 22: 23), and the doctors of the law (Mt 22: 35). Finally,
Jesus denounces at length, and in harsh terms, the scribes and the Pharisees
(Mt 23: 1-36), followed by a tragic accusation against Jerusalem, the city that
will not be converted (Mt 23: 37-39). It is within this context of tension and
danger that Jesus tells the parable of the two sons, the subject of our
meditation.
Commentary on the Words of Jesus as Found in Matthew:
Matthew 21:28-30: An
Example Taken from Family Life
•
What is your opinion? This is a provocative
question. Jesus asks His listeners to be attentive and to reply. In the context
of the parable, the listeners invited to give their opinion are the high
priests and elders of the people (Mt 21: 23). These are the ones who, from fear
of the people, would not give an answer to the question as to the origin of
John the Baptist, whether He was from heaven or from earth (Mt 21: 24-27).
These are the ones who will seek a way to arrest Him (Mt 21: 45-46).
•
A man had two sons. Jesus tells the story of a
father who says to one of his sons "My boy, you go and work in the
vineyard today." The young man replies, "Certainly, sir!" but
then does not go. The father then says the same thing to his other son. This
son replies, "I will not go!" but then goes. The listeners too are
fathers of families and must have known these matters from personal experience.
•
Which of the two did the father’s will? Jesus
ends the parable by making explicit His initial question. The priests and
elders answer promptly, the second! The answer came quickly because the matter
concerned a familiar situation, well known and evident, one that they
experienced in their own families and, most probably, practiced by them (and by
all of us) when they were young. Thus, in reality, the answer was a judgment,
not on the two sons in the parable, but also on themselves. By answering, the
first, they were judging their own attitudes. For, in times past, they had so
often told their father, "I will not go!" but then went under
pressure of circumstances or because remorse led them to do what the father
asked. In their reply they show themselves as if they were obedient children.
•
This is precisely the function or the
"trap" of the parable, namely, to bring the listeners to feel
involved in the story, so that using their own experience as criterion, they
would come to a value judgment of the story told in the parable. This judgment
will soon be used as a key to apply the parable to life. The same didactic
procedure may be found also in the parable of the vineyard (Mt 21: 41-46) and
that of the debtors (Lk 7: 40-46).
•
Matthew 21: 31-32: Application of the parable *
I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into
the kingdom of God before you! Using the reply given by the priests and elders
as a key, Jesus applies the parable to the sinful silence of His listeners
before the message of John the Baptist. The reply they gave becomes their own
condemnation. According to this sentence, it is the publicans and prostitutes,
who, at first, had said no to the father but then did the will of the Father,
because they had received and accepted the message of John the Baptist as
coming from God. Whereas they, the priests and elders, were the ones who, at
first, had said yes to the father, but had not carried out what the father had
asked, because they would not accept the message of John the Baptist, not even
in the face of so many who did accept it as from God.
•
Thus, by means of the parable, Jesus turns
everything upside down: those who were considered transgressors of the Law and
therefore condemned, were in truth those who had obeyed God and tried to walk
the way of justice, while those who considered themselves obedient to the Law
of God, were in fact those who disobeyed God.
•
The reason for this harsh judgment from Jesus
lies in the fact that the religious authorities, priests and elders, would not
believe that John the Baptist came from God. The publicans and the prostitutes,
however, believed. This means that for Jesus, the contemplative outlook, the
ability to recognize the active presence of God in persons and things of life,
was not in the priests, not even among their leaders. Yet it was in those who
were despised as sinners and unclean. It is easy to understand why these
authorities decided to apprehend and kill Jesus: “when they heard these
parables, the chief priests and the scribes realized He was speaking about
them” (Mt 21: 45-46).
•
Anyone who wishes to apply this parable today
would probably provoke the same anger that Jesus did through his conclusion.
The same thing happens today. Prostitutes, sinners, the ignorant, some women,
children, lay people, workers, people of color, prisoners, homosexuals, persons
with AIDS, drunkards, drug addicts, divorced persons, married clergy, heretics,
atheists, unmarried mothers, the unemployed, the illiterate, the sick, that is,
all those marginalized as not part of the religious circle, frequently have a
sharper outlook in perceiving the way of justice than those of us who live all
day in church and are part of the religious hierarchy. It is not just because a
person belongs to the religious hierarchy, therefore, that he or she has an
outlook that allows him or her to perceive the things of God in life.
To Throw Light on the words of Jesus
•
A New Way
of Teaching People and to Speak of God
Jesus was not a scholar (Jn 7: 15). Unlike the apostle Paul
(Acts 23: 3), He did not go to the high school in Jerusalem.
He came from the country, from Nazareth, a small town in
Galilee. Now, this carpenter from Galilee goes to Jerusalem and, without
getting permission from the authorities, starts teaching the people in the
square in front of the temple! He said new things. He spoke differently,
divinely! The people were impressed by his way of teaching, "A new
doctrine! Taught with authority! Different from that of the Scribes! (Mk 1: 22,
27). What Jesus did most was teach, it was a habit with Him. Many times the
Evangelists say that Jesus taught. If they do not always say what Jesus taught,
it is not because they are not interested in the content, but because the
content comes through not only in the teaching but also in the gestures and in
His attitude toward the people. The content is never separate from the person who
communicates it. The goodness and love that come through in His way of acting
and of being with others are part of the content. They are like the “tempera;”
good content without goodness is like spilt milk.
•
Teaching
Through Parables.
Jesus taught above all through parables. He had an
extraordinary capacity to find comparisons in order to explain the things of
God: things that are not so evident by means of simple and clear examples,
which the people knew and experienced in their lives in their daily struggle to
survive. This presupposes two things: keeping to the experiences of life and
keeping to the things of God, of the Realm of God.
Usually, Jesus does not explain the parables, but says,
"Those who have ears to hear, listen!" Or "You have heard. Now
try to understand!" For instance, the farmer who hears the parable of the
seed says, "I know what the seed that falls on the ground is all about!
But Jesus said that this is connected with the Realm of God. What does He mean?"
We can then imagine the long conversations and discussions among the people.
Once a bishop asked the community, "Jesus said that we must be like salt.
What is salt used for?" The community discussed this and came up with more
than ten purposes for salt! They then applied all this to the life of the
community and discovered that to be salt is difficult and demanding. The
parable had worked!
In some parables there are things that do not usually happen
in life. For instance, when have we ever seen a shepherd leave ninety-nine
sheep to go looking for the one that is lost? (Lk 15: 4). When have we ever
seen a father who welcomes his dissolute son with a feast and not a word to
scold him? (Lk 15: 20-24). Where have we ever seen a Samaritan who is better
than a Levite or a priest? (Lk 10: 29-37). In this way, the parable provokes
thought. It invites us to be involved in the story and to reflect on ourselves,
starting from the experience of life and then confronting this with God. It
makes us discover from experience that God is present in our everyday life. The
parable is a participative form of teaching, of educating. It does not present
every little detail. It does not give all the facts but entices us to discover.
A parable changes our view; it makes us contemplatives, persons who delve into
reality. Herein lies the novelty of Jesus’ teaching in parables. It is
different from the teaching of the doctors who taught that God manifests
Himself only in the observance of the law. For Jesus, "The Realm of God is
not the fruit of observance. The Realm of God is among you!" (Lk 17: 21)
Psalm 121
The Contemplative Eye Discovers the Presence of God in
Life
I lift up my eyes to the hills. Whence does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved, He who keeps you will
not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The
Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall
not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your
life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from
this time forth and for evermore.
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May Your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice that which Your Word has revealed to us.
May we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word,
You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever
and ever. Amen.
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