Lip service and empty words

 

Lip-service and empty words come to mind in my reflection today—as well as mercy and forgiveness. 

Meditation and reflection on Sacred Scripture helps us to see the consequences of human behavior without the gloss of popular secular psychology, which offers us all kinds of excuses.  Holy Scripture allows us to see that with God there’s a chance to make reparation, to make up for the wrong we’ve done.  True, we might have lost precious opportunities in the realm of temporal things by our faulty decisions, but as long as we have a beating heart, we have the wonderful opportunity to atone to God humbly and contritely for our transgressions.  In return not only are we forgiven, but God offers us, as no human relationships can, the chance to turn even bad choices into an opportunity for good.

God knows the children who love Him.  It’s not the ones who say, “Yes, yes” and never ‘enter the vineyard’, as the second son did in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 21:28-32).  It’s those who, despite their protestations, do His will.

In the end the first son demonstrated self-less love while the second son demonstrated empty promises with no heart at all.  It seems easy enough even for the leaders to see this truth.  However, lest we see ourselves as the first son and get too puffed up with vainglory (Philippians 2:3) we would do well to remember the type of love which Jesus taught and demonstrated; “agape”—self-emptying love.

Anyone who ever wonders if God understands our human nature should ponder this Gospel, as well as Psalm 34 and Zephaniah 3:1-13.  They’re about listening, drawing near, acceptance, trust, seeing, changing our minds, and the cry of the poor.  Our God made us, undeniably understands us, and was willing to become man to draw us close to Himself.

Zephaniah warns a people who had become hard-hearted that their failure to listen and to draw near to God would result in a time of purification.  The remnant would be a people who were humble and lowly, people who would turn their hearts towards God.  The psalm is like a theme song to remind us that God hears the “cry of the poor”, a humble reminder.  May we all take to heart the words of the psalm and “let our souls glory in the Lord.” (Psalm 34:3).

It’s of interest in the Gospel that Christ directs His questions not to the common folks, who would be the learners, but rather to the chief priests and elders, who would be recognized as the learned ones, about the ways of God.  Any of us can succumb to pride, or indifference about our relationship towards God, and get caught up in the seemingly important roles of our various states in life.  We can be guilty of placing God on the sidelines of our life.  We’ll pray if we have the time; if it’s convenient.  It’s a blessing for us that God is also a patient God, but for how long?  

The gift of God's grace is evident in the themes of this beautiful season of expectation.  May we be blessed to access God's mercy in this Season of Light.