FROM THE PULPIT TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME REFLECTION BY FATHER BENOIT MUKAMBA, CSSp..
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FROM THE PULPIT
TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 18: 25-28; Philippians 2: 1-11; Matthew 21: 28-32.
REFLECTIONS: JESUS, SALVATION OF THE SINNER.
Fr. Benoit Mukamba, CSSp.
The rain had been pouring nonstop for two days in the town; a sick man who lived there was shivering with cold and couldn’t help himself. He thought, “If I call the priest he will surely come”. So he made the call asking for the anointing of the sick. Indeed, the priest showed up, prayed for the poor man anointing him with oil for healing. At the end, the priest wished him a blessed evening and quick recovery. To which the man responded, “I am not sure father.” He went forward asking, “Father, do you have a cigarette?” The priest responded, “I stopped smoking a long time ago”. Go well father, he said concluding their conversation. Later, the priest returned with a packet of cigarettes to give the shivering man. The man took it and looked at it twice, looked at the priest and then said, “You are a man of God, father.”
“Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.” Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of Israel. The tax collectors and prostitutes were regarded as the most sinful and wretched people in Israel at the time. Tax collectors failed to meet the expected morals because they were instruments of the foreign occupiers and were suspected of extracting more tax than required by Roman officials. Prostitutes were despised on account of their trade failing the requirement of the Ten Commandments. But, when they encountered Jesus of Nazareth, their lives changed. They came to believe in Jesus and his teaching and changed their lifestyles. Consequently, Matthew, a tax collector, became one the close friends of Jesus. He remained faithful to him to the end of his own life. From him, we have received the Gospel according to Matthew. Mary Magdalene, too, came to believe and became a faithful disciple. She followed the Lord all the way to Calvary. From her, came the first news of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. These two stand as examples of the wicked who have changed into virtuous people. To them, belongs the kingdom of God. In them, God’s justice is manifested. Prophet Ezekiel in today’s first reading puts it clearly too.
The chief priests and elders did not change their hearts even after seeing all that was happening with tax collectors and prostitutes. They thought of themselves as righteous before God and looked down on others. They had resisted the message of John Baptist and also rejected Jesus. Indeed, they falsely accused Jesus and condemned him to be crucified. They persisted in their wickedness. Should God be blamed for their eternal death? No. They chose to die in their wickedness.
God’s mercy comes to the soul even at its latest opportunity. It is up to that soul to welcome the mercy of God. God never gives up on the sinner but visits him/her with his mercy always. For what matters before our God is not many times we fall in sin, but how often we struggle and rise to be reconciled and at peace with him. Like a mother watching her baby trying to walk, she feels consoled by the many times her baby rises again and tries to walk until finally the baby’s knees become strong and walks. So God watches and accompanies us on our way to holiness. Beloved in the Lord, let us, then have in us the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, humbly regarding others as more important than ourselves, each looking out not for one’s own interests, but also for those of others. (Phil 2: 3-5)