26th Sunday In Ordinary Time I Gospel Mt 21: 28-32 I 1 October 2023 I Sunday Reflections

Twenty Sixth Sunday – 1 October 2023 Dear friends, today, on the twenty sixth Sunday in ordinary time, the theme of the liturgy of the word is “repentance and obedience to the will of God”. The readings invite us to attentively listen to God and obey in action. The Gospel speaks to us of repentance and being obedient to God. One cannot be impulsive and half-hearted to do any action, thereby missing the point of listening to God and doing His will. “Without obedience there is no virtue,” says St Padre Pio. Today the virtue of obedience is being considered as an old-fashioned virtue that pertains only to certain situations, entities or age group. When we speak of humility, often people think that one who is humble is coward and weak. However, that’s not true. The parable of the two sons in the Gospel highlights the need for obedience to the father. The first son refuses to go, but later he goes, and the second son says he would go, but does not go to the vineyard. Both the sons’ response to the father could have been impulsive, but the first son proves to be better as he repents and obeys his father. Jesus tells this parable to remind his followers to be honest with oneself and to God. We, his followers, ought to look at Jesus who listened to the voice of the Father and fulfilled His will. We see the humility of Jesus in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. In the second reading St Paul encourages the people of Philippi to have the mind of Christ –“…having the same love, being full in accord and of one mind” (Phil 2:2). Here Paul gives a perfect example of humility with the hymn of humility of Christ “He became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.” We have many saintly men and women in the Church who were humble and obedient, and so God exalted them. We are called to be obedient to God by acquiring the virtue of humility. What pleases God is that we be faithful to His commands. In our day-to-day life we are faced with the circumstances where we give up our likes and ways in order to compromise with the other. If we desire to live a holy life, we need to seek the will of God in our life and obey God. It is not easy to obey. It requires courage, humility, openness and letting go of our ego. Our blessed Mother lived life constantly obeying the command of the Lord and surrendered herself in all circumstances of life, not knowing the future. The fear of uncertainties can in many ways block the openness to the other or to God. So, to have the virtue of obedience we require certain amount of trust in the other. Hence, one has to take personal responsibility to make effort to acquire these virtues. In the first reading prophet Ezekiel speaks of owning personal responsibility to shape one’s character by obeying God and changing one’s negative ways. As Christians we are called to strengthen our relationship with God, to listen to him and obey his command. Thus in obeying we will manifest the love of God in our day-to-day living. Pauline Sisters are canonically the Daughters of St Paul, a congregation of Pontifical right, founded in 1915. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel using the means of communication available. We print and publish books, booklets, cards, mini-media in hard format and also in e-format. On Youtube you can subscribe to our channel... here where you are watching and get our videos , also from our other channel https://paulineindia.org/ Pauline Books and Media https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbOj... On Facebook,   / pauline.india   On Twitter   / paulinesindia   Pinterest   / paulinesindia   Instagram   / paulinesist.  .