26TH SUNDAY MASS IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A, GOSPEL AND COMMENTARY: PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS (Mt 21:28–32).
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”
Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, Commentary to the Gospel of St. Luke (with permission)
The parable of the two sons
- 32 St John the Baptist had shown the way to sanctification by proclaiming the imminence of the Kingdom of God and by preaching conversion.
- The scribes and Pharisees would not believe him, yet they boasted of their faithfulness to God’s teaching. They were like the son who says “I will go” and then does not go;
- the tax collectors and prostitutes who repented and corrected the course of their lives will enter the Kingdom before them: they are like the other son who says “I will not”, but then does go.
- Our Lord stresses that penance and conversion can set people on the road to holiness even if they have been living apart from God for a long time.
VIDEO COMMENTARY
TOPIC: ARE YOU WINNING YOUR R.A.C.E. TO HEAVEN?
SEPT 27, 2020: HOLY MASS