Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 27, 2020: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, 

did not regard equality with God something to be grasped…

What are you willing to surrender for the Lord?

  The prophet Ezekiel has a tough time making the people of Israel understand that God wants them to take responsibility for their own actions:  Hear now, house of Israel:  Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?  Ezekiel prescribes personal accountability because God’s desire is that the people be in relationship with God.  If they take responsibility for their actions, turning from the wickedness they have committed, then God will remember God’s mercies, as Psalm 25 states, and forgive, opening them to relationship.  The psalmist desires to know what the Lord desires of him:  Your ways, O Lord, make known to me, teach me your paths.  Help me to understand what you want, the psalmist is saying, and I will step away from the sins that have dominated my life.

  When, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus recounts the parable of the two sons, he is speaking to the chief priests and elders of the people who desperately need to turn from sin, to turn to Jesus and believe.  In the parable, one son refuses to work in his father’s vineyard, then relents, while the other says he will go but never does. Jesus is trying to teach the chief priests and elders a lesson about obedience to God’s will, but they do not see that the Lord wants them to turn to him as the way of righteousness because they lack the humility and will to obedience that Paul prescribes to the Philippian community:  have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God… emptied himself, humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death. 

  We too need the humility Christ revealed throughout his own journey, putting others’ needs before his own.  Paul calls for compassion and mercy as ways of demonstrating what it means to be a Christian community. We too have to suffer for the sake of love; we have to endure for love’s sake, not lose sight of it, not lose sight of Christ’s presence among us.  Every act of humility and obedience is a surrendering to God’s will, an opening of ourselves to his will for our lives.  We must therefore echo the psalmist as we ask the Lord to guide us in his truth and teach us, that we might fully and responsibly participate in the life he has invited us to.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com