In our first reading today we hear from Ezekiel, one of the Old Testament Prophets who lived in the sixth century B.C. The word “prophet” refers to one who is chosen to speak for God, on God’s behalf. The prophet speaks the truth in words and in deeds in order to point the creature-man, back to his Creator. By his faithful witness, the prophet reminds man of his responsibility to respond to the Creator’s call, and then the prophet shows man how to respond and so how to find his way back to or to a fuller intimacy with God.
Responsibility was a recurring theme not only of Ezekiel, but also of all the Old Testament prophets. And so, is it not predicting the future that is the essential element of the prophet, but that of reminding man of his grave responsibility to God and of fulfilling that responsibility, by repenting; that is, by turning away from sin and back to God. Turning back to God entails being obedient to God’s Truth, to His Holy Word and to His Holy Church, and then struggling with the help of God’s grace in living that truth out in Charity-love, thus being obedient to God’s Holy Will. Simply put the true prophet shows the way to the Face of God by giving God’s people the truth…Hence, many times the prophet is not considered a nice guy…and is usually persecuted by some of those God has called to be His own.
Ezekiel’s message, as does the message today from St. Paul, focuses on this mystery of man’s responsibility. This same message of our first and second reading--responsibility, in fact personal responsibility, is also found as well in today’s Gospel: the parable of the two sons, asked by their father to perform a certain task, and the two sons’ differing replies or responses to their father’s request. In their differing responses, we discover the meaning of responsibility.
Responsibility comes from two words, “response” and “ability.” It literally means a capacity for replying to someone to whom a reply is due. For anyone with faith, for anyone who believes that man is God’s creature called to live with God forever, responsibility has to do with man’s reply to His Creator to Whom a reply is definitely due; in justice as well as in love. Responsibility as to do with God’s Holy Will for man, and man’s reply or response back to that Will as shown by man’s obedience, not only to God directly but also to the prophets that God sends.
In this loving response to God and His Will, we can discover, if we are of good will, that God’s will for us is not just a set of commands for command’s sake or rules for the sake of rules. No, God’s will for us is about a set or a body of directives all pointing to what is best for our welfare. It is a set of guiding principles and truths that actually point the individual to God, or better yet allow the individual the freedom to respond or reply to God’s initiative; for it was He who first called us; it was He who first loved us, not the other way around.
As you know, Christian responsibility is not always easy for the disciple of Jesus. Sometimes being responsible for right actions before God entails carrying a cross, even to the point of martyrdom if necessary. Such is thrust of today’s Second Reading, from St. Paul to the Philippians. Here we are reminded that Christian responsibility is a service to others, a suffering service, carried out in the footstep of the Suffering Servant Himself, Jesus of Nazareth. This is known as the martyrdom of love, were a man lays down his life for the sake of his friend, the first friend being, of course, Jesus-God Himself.
This martyrdom of love, while it can be expressed by the shedding of one’s blood, is mostly lived out fidelity to our ordinary daily duties, both materially and spiritually. Doing all, even the seemingly insignificant things, for the sake of and for the Love of God first, and then for neighbor for love of God; never living for one’s own sake but for the sake of and the good of the other. In this dying of self by dying to our self-will and selfishness in all things, do we alone find authentic freedom, authentic love and the fullness of life, for a martyrdom of love, leads us to the abundant life, life lived in union with God…..To he who is faithful in small things I will entrust larger ones…in this we discover we are all, by our baptism called to be prophets of God…
It’s important that we remember that we can only begin our grave responsibility to God (and neighbor) by our adoration of God—first things first!!! Adoration is the only proper reply that us creatures can give in response to God, in response to all that He has given to us, which is of course everything, even our very existence. We do not and cannot in any way fulfill our responsibility to God (and neighbor) without first adoring God…true religion is primarily about adoring and worshiping our Creator. This is why we must attend Mass which is the perfect act of Adoration because it is the adoration of God to God, Jesus to the Father on our behalf. If we don’t attend Mass we fail at the very deepest level in our responsibility to God. In fact, the Holy Mass is the primary source of “our ability” to give our response to God thus fulfilling our responsibility.
At Mass, through grace, we must trustingly offer to God in love, all that we are and all that we have. It is our responsibility, the responsibility of love, to do so, this is true adoration, a self-oblation before the Lord, not to be destroyed but to be assumed up into God’s love, becoming one with Him. In the Mass, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is re-presented to us; that is, made present for us today, here and now.
For our sake not for His, Jesus in obedience offers everything, his very life to the Father on the wood of the cross out of love for us; and then the Father through Jesus in the Holy Eucharist offers us His all, His everything to us by giving us the fullness of His Divine Son. We celebrated this, a couple of weeks ago at the feast of the Triumph of the cross. Jesus not only gives us the perfect example to imitate in order to carry out our responsibility, but also provides us with the wellspring of mercy and grace by giving us His very own Sacred Pierced Heart. And if we open our hearts and minds to It, To Him, by His gift of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed into living images of Jesus for the world, giving our all for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls, in this we begin to truly serve our fellow man and “feed” the poor.
We in the manner of Jesus on the cross, make His prayer our own at the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer. The priest says, “The Lord be with you.” And you respond, “and also with you.” Then he says, “Lift up your hearts.” And you respond, “We lift them up to the Lord,” that is we offer them (Our hearts) to the Lord in adoration and in response to His great love for us. Finally, the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” You respond, “It is right and just to give him thanks and praise; in other words it our responsibility in justice and love to give Him thanks and praise by offering ourselves in love, giving our “I do” in response to His “I do”. With this prayer, we offer to God all that we are and all that we have—our whole heart, uniting ourselves to the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary which becomes truly present before us on the altar, responding to Father’s love by giving our all our very self back to Him through His Son, with His Son and in His Son, thus carrying out our primary responsibility to the Lord. This is the first, most profound and most personal act of adoration we can do; this is the primary source of the strength to love God and then to love our neighbor for love of Him.
We have all, at one time or the other been one of the two sons in the parable. Either we say we are disciples of God; that is, we say we will do what He demands; but instead, we do our own thing. Or we don’t do what we should, but hopefully repent and in the end do so. Today, let us be the third son not mentioned, the one who like Jesus, understands his great responsibility to his Father, and responds immediately by doing what is asked of Him. Love is always shown by deeds; that is, in loving obedience, doing the will of God, of following His Commandments and the Teachings of His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, without hesitation and without counting the cost. Adoration of God is our primary duty, and from it flows the grace, love and mercy to carry out our second; that is, to love our neighbor by serving him or her in and with the truth that comes from God and is given to us through His Catholic Church, and doing so with sanctifying grace, that is with, in and through Jesus and with His love alive in our hearts.
Today in the Holy Eucharist, God knocks at the door to our heart; let us discover that adoration is the key to unlock the door of our hearts to Christ; it is only through obedience to our responsibility that we can open our heart to Him. The Holy Eucharist is Jesus who longs come into our hearts, from Him alone we receive the capacity to be fill with His Love, which is His very Self. He alone is the source of our ability and capacity to “respond” in love to the call of our God, who is the God who is Love. To respond can only mean we offer our hearts in response to the God who offers us His Sacred Heart pierced for love of us and truly present and beating for love of us in the Holy Eucharist…Let us ask the Virgin to help us lift up our hearts; that is to, through her, offer them completely in love to the Lord…Amen.