Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Amen.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Fill us with Your joy.
Set our hearts ablaze with Your presence.
Open our minds to Your truth,
and soften our hearts
to receive the grace You offer us today.
A few days ago,
I was spending time with my eight-year-old grandson.
As only a proud grandson can do,
he walked up to me carrying his children's Bible and said,
"Pop, I've read all the way to page 142."
His mother smiled and quickly corrected him.
"Dad, he probably hasn't read all of it.
He may have looked through the pages
and called it reading."
And honestly, that may be true.
My grandson has dyslexia,
with a little ADHD thrown in on top.
Reading is not always easy for him.
Paying attention is not always easy for him.
Sometimes his struggles show themselves
in ways he wishes they didn't.
Sometimes he misbehaves.
Sometimes he gets frustrated.
Sometimes he falls short.
And he knows it.
But what struck me that day
was not what he struggles with.
It was where he turns.
He turns to Jesus.
Not with complicated theology.
Not with polished prayers.
But with the simple faith of a child.
Recently, he got a haircut
and asked the barber to cut a lightning bolt
into the side of his head.
Then he asked him to place a cross at the end of it.
When asked why, his answer was simple.
"So people will know I love Jesus."
I thought to myself,
there is something beautiful about that.
Because that little boy
knows something that many adults forget.
He knows who he belongs to.
And that is really the question
placed before us in today's readings.
Who do we belong to?
Saint Anselm described God as,
"that than which nothing greater can be conceived."
God is not simply one good thing
among many good things.
He is Goodness itself.
He is Truth itself.
He is Love itself.
He is the One for whom every human heart was created.
And yet, if we're honest,
we often allow lesser things to take His place.
Our pride.
Our comfort.
Our plans.
Our opinions.
We may never say it out loud,
but the way we live
can sometimes reveal
we trust ourselves
more than we trust God.
That is what lies beneath the complaint
we hear in the First Reading.
The people accuse God of being unfair.
And through the prophet Ezekiel,
God responds:
"Is it My way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?"
That question reaches across the centuries
and speaks directly to us.
The problem is rarely God's way.
The struggle is that we want God's will
to look more like our will.
But discipleship is not
asking God to follow us.
It is learning to follow Him.
That is the beautiful prayer from Psalms:
"Teach me Your paths."
"Guide me in Your truth."
"Remember Your compassion, O Lord."
The Psalmist is a not asking God
to affirm him.
He is asking God
to transform him.
That is the essence of conversion.
Conversion is not merely
feeling sorry for our sins.
Conversion is allowing grace
to reshape our hearts
until we begin thinking, loving,
and living more like Christ.
Day by day.
Choice by choice.
Surrender by surrender.
The example Saint Paul points us to is Jesus Himself.
The Eternal Son of God
did not cling to His glory.
He emptied Himself.
He humbled Himself.
He became obedient,
even unto death on a Cross.
Friends, humility is never weakness.
Humility is the doorway
through which grace enters.
It is the soil where holiness grows.
It is the way of Christ.
Jesus gives us the parable of the two sons.
One son says "no."
But later he repents
and does the Father's will.
The other son says all the right words,
but never follows through.
Jesus is reminding us,
salvation is not found in appearances.
It is found in surrender.
God desires faithful hearts
more than religious performance.
The saints understood this.
They were not saints
because they never struggled.
They were saints
because they continually returned to God
whenever they fell.
They allowed mercy to have the final word.
Friends, that is the hope of today's Gospel.
The Father never tires of calling His children back.
The vineyard is still there.
The invitation is still there.
The grace is still there.
The only question is
whether we will be there.
God is less concerned
with where we have been
than with where we are willing to go.
Less concerned with yesterday's failures
than with today's decision.
That is conversion.
Most conversions do not arrive like a lightning bolt.
Most happen quietly.
One prayer at a time.
One act of forgiveness at a time.
One surrender at a time.
It is that daily moment when we stop saying,
"Lord, bless my plans,"
and begin saying,
"Lord, teach me Your paths."
May our words,
our choices,
our prayer,
our charity,
and our witness proclaim:
"I belong to Jesus Christ."
Be good. Be holy.
Humble yourselves before the Lord.
Receive His mercy. Follow His will.
Love one another. Forgive one another.
And let your life become a living proclamation of the Gospel and of the One to whom you belong.
Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
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