26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. By Tobe Eze

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A.

FIRST READING
Ezekiel 18:25—28

SECOND READING
Philippians 2:1—11

GOSPEL
Matthew 21:28—32

THEME: IS IT NOT INJUSTICE?

Is it not injustice that I will make effort throughout my lifetime and at my dying better I relent and loose every effort I have been making since I was born and someone who has never made effort towards death had a change of heart and gain everything?

In Luke 18:1 the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ said “we ought to pray and never loose heart”. This is just the best answer to the question above. In Igbo we use to say onye gbakata kwuru nke ogbara agba ala ya n' iyi. That is, one who makes effort and stop, will lose even the one he has made. It is only when we run the race till the end that we will get the reward. Continue Reading....

In the first reading, prophet Ezekiel representing God before us is urging us to keep on keeping on. Once we are alive, we are to make effort, for the fact that we don’t know the hour the son of man will be coming, effort should always be in a continuous state. While we make that effort, we are not to look onto any person except Christ, he is the only one who is not dynamic in nature. Some are descendants of Constantine that received baptism on the dying bed, some are descendants of Judas Iscariot who followed Jesus throughout his life but at the last moment lost everything while some are descendants of Mary who started with Jesus from Annunciation till she died. The first and the last are good, the second one is worst. The best is the last one. We may be waiting for our sick bed and meet death without being sick. Unprepared death can come at any time.

Second reading, St. Paul tells us, as we make that effort, let it not be to please people but to please God. Let us not play to the gallery. Let it not be for a vainglory. Let it not be ka ndi mmadu huu ma obu too anyi. Let it not be mbo anyi n' agba n' elu mbo onye Ozo gbasara. Let us do good from the heart. It is better to do things because they are good not because the law asks us to do them. Oka mma ime ihe n' okwesiri obughi n' iwu megidere n' I ga eme ya. Any good done without good heart is like giving a hot food to a hungry child. The child will not appreciate it.

In the gospel, we see where words and action are opposite of each other. I will not go and latter went and I will go and never done that. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:37 let our yes be our yes and our no be our no. In today’s gospel, it was not so, but the truth remains that we are called differently. The first was called but he did not understand the call but latter realized it and answered the call. The second realized the call but allowed himself to be carried away by things of the earth and did not answer the call. And this is what we do everyday of our life.

It is never injustice but Mercy. God is an impartial God, he only like to treat us with mercy. The gospel is just the fulfilment of the first reading and the second reading is away to maintain the goodness forever. We are born differently and we shall die differently, that is still how our callings are differently. We should follow the way of the second reading and humble ourselves like Christ who is God but did not count himself equal to God a thing to be grasped. Though we do every good thing but we should not boost in them. We should do them in humility and love. We should count others first, let us learn how to discomfort ourselves to comfort others. Christ discomforted himself just to comfort us and we are to learn from him for he is the only perfect example we can follow and the only way that leads to heaven. Even when we miss the track like in the gospel let also follow the first son to come back to our master. Pope Francis said that God is never tied of forgiving us but it is only us who get tied of asking for forgiveness but it never a guarantee for us to live in sin. Let us not waste our already made effort by relenting but continue to make effort for our reward is waiting for us. It is only those who run till the end will be given the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4). And we should also bear in mind that he places his hands on the plough and looks back will not reach the kingdom (Luke 9:62). Onye elela anya n' azu. Keep going for our God is a just God not God of injustice. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.