Dear Friends:

In today’s Gospel we see the two sons who caused their father sorrow by disobeying him. In the Ancient Jewish society, son must never say “no” to his father, especially in public. The son who says “no” is contemptible. Therefore the ideal for the son is to say “yes” and carry out what the father asks. In the case of the two sons it is clear that they disobeyed their father. However, Jesus emphasizes “the act of repentance” in the case of the first son.

The first son, on the one hand, like many children of today, either expressed his adolescent rebelliousness or had been attached to something playfully interesting as our children today are addicted to (or drawn towards) computer games, cinema and sports. He, however, might have realized later the seriousness of his father’s word and obeyed it. He is likened to each of us. Like the first son, we also time and again, disobey our parents, we sadden them and do not realize their authentic love and care for us.

On the other hand, the second son showed a pharisaic attitude of saying “yes” only to please his father, but deep in his heart was actually saying “no”. He was like the saying: “Words without actions are like birds without feathers.” Are we any different from this son? We bear the name of Christ but we fail to live like Him in our life; we love to participate in the Eucharist, but we fail to celebrate it by loving our neighbour. Through the attitude of the second son, Jesus wants to show how the chief priests and the elders fail to live their faith. This reminds us of how the Israelites pledged their obedience to God, but they did not obey: ” Both the sons in the Gospel are not ideal or perfect. But we have Jesus the only Son of God who is perfect. He is the model of perfect obedience. He obeyed his Father’s will even to the point of dying on the cross All of us are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord. Everyone is called to make a choice. Every individual must decide how to respond to the Word of God, and all must accept the consequences of their choice.

May the saying, “Actions speak louder than words,” enable us to imitate Christ and mean ‘yes’ when we say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ when we say ‘no’