There was a father who called his three little children together. As they sat together in a circle on the floor, the dad placed a toy in the middle. He explained to them that he won the toy as a door prize, and he wanted to give it to one of them, but with a condition. He asked them, “Who is the most obedient?” The children just stared at him. Sensing that they probably didn’t understand his question, he then asked, “OK, who always obeys Mommy and does everything she says?”
One of the children picked up the toy and handed it to the father, and said, “You win."
The children may not have understood the word obedient, but they saw it in the actions of their father.
In Table Talk, Samuel Taylor Coleridge makes an arresting statement. He says, "If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil." The point Coleridge is making is that people rarely tread water. They are constantly changing, either for the better or for the worse.
Today's gospel is an example of this. The older son refused to help his father, then changed his mind and helped him. The younger son promised to help his father, then changed his mind and refused.
There's nothing more tragic than someone who starts off well and ends up badly. There's nothing more inspiring than someone who starts off badly and ends up well. Which way are we moving in our lives?
This parable of Jesus bears a striking similarity to his parable of the prodigal son. Both involve two sons. In both parables, the younger son represents people who say they will do something and then don’t. They set two kinds of people before us and ask us which one we resemble.
Obedience is not what God wants to just hear from us; He wants to see obedience in our actions.
Isn’t that what happens every Sunday or every time we gather at Mass to worship? We profess our faith, and God hears it. I’m sure it is something sweet to the ears of God, but there is something sweeter – candy to the eyes of God – when we put actions to back up our faith. How many times in the Scriptures do the words, “When Jesus saw their faith….” precede a miracle?
When you continue to smile at difficult people at the office, when you say no to personal TV time to attend to your children, when you continue to understand an erring spouse, when you continue to give in times of scarcity, when you struggle to get off your bed and go to Church for Mass – that is the kind of obedience that God wants to see. That is putting actions behind your faith.
Ask yourself today, are we, like the older son, moving closer to God in our lives? Or are we like the younger son, drifting further from God in our lives?
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