Commentary: 26 OT A

Ezekiel 18: 25-28

Psalm 125

Philippians 2: 1-11

Matthew 21: 28-32



The readings today discuss the way God judges and forgives. The First Reading is from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, where the prophet quotes the people’s plaint, “The Lord’s way is not fair!” Ezekiel turns that back onto the people. God’s ability to forgive sins and allow people to repent struck the Israelites of Ezekiel’s time as unjust, but the prophecy states “since he has turned away from all the sins which he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” The Responsorial Psalm picks up on this, and sings from the vantage of the sinner, “The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not; in Your kindness remember me, because of Your goodness, O Lord.” The Gospel presents the parable of the two sons; the one who agreed to work and then did not, and the other who rebelled against his father and finally did as he was asked. After telling this parable, Jesus compares the “acceptance” of the conventionally religious of His time, who then ignored the Gospel Jesus offered, to the acceptance of the prostitutes and tax collector, who heard the Gospel of repentance and embraced it. The message is clear: God’s forgiveness goes, not those who “deserve” it, but to those who need it and rejoice in it.



Clement of Alexandria says: “God pardons what is past, then, but for the future we are each responsible for how we live. By repenting, we condemn our past misdeeds and beg forgiveness of the Father, the only One who in His mercy can undo what has been done, and wipe away our past sins with the dew of His Spirit.” (Homily on the Salvation of the Rich)



The in-course reading of Philippians continues today. The Second Reading contains two distinct parts: one is an ethical exhortation; the other is a hymn. The hymn is familiar to those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, because it appears in Evening Prayer every week on Saturday (i.e., Evening Prayer I of Sunday). We also encounter the hymn each year as the Second Reading on Passion/Palm Sunday. Here, though, it is the exhortation which is the focus (as is indicated by the short form of the reading in the lectionary). The exhortation, in which Paul asks his readers to live in “unanimity, possessing the one love, united in spirit and ideals…let all parties think humbly of othersas superior to themselves.” He does this, though by then adding the “hymn of Christ’s humiliation and glorification.” If we are to be followers of Christ, then we need to take Christ as the source of our new life.



The text of the antiphon of the Introit (Entrance Psalm) for this sunday in Year A is taken from today's Second Reading. You can hear this sung in Gregorian chant in Engish by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop on the recording "Music for the Year of Matthew," published by The Liturgical Press (www.litpress.org)