PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CONVERSION AND SALVATION.
September 27, 2020
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: EZ 18:25-28; PS 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; PHIL 2:1-11 OR 2:1-5; MT 21:28-32.
A Mexican proverb says, “Man must learn to increase his sense of responsibility and of the fact that everything he does will have its consequences.” And a Bambara proverb adds, “The child who loves freedom is the first victim of it.”
When I was a formator in our seminaries, in Eastern Africa,
in Kenya, as well as here in Easter Asia, in the Philippines, I had one motto,
and those who have been my seminarians can recall it: “Freedom and
Responsibility”. That is, you are free to do whatsoever you want, but be as
well responsible to face the consequences of your actions. Speaking of consequences,
it must be understood in its broad sense of advantages and inconveniences.
To be free is what we all dream of. Freedom is the dearest
word in every adolescent and youth conversation. We also speak of freedom in a
social, economic, and political level. We want to be free of all constringent
rules and have the capacity to do whatever we wish; free to go wherever we want
and whenever we deem so. But then, we oftentimes refuse the counterpart of our
dream for freedom, our responsibilities. We forget that freedom without
responsibility is libertinage and at a certain point liberticide, that is a
poison to our freedom.
Today’s liturgy of the word, especially the first reading
and the Gospel unite to give us a treatise on freedom and responsibility. We are,
in substance, told that conversion and salvation are a conjugation of our
freedom and our personal responsibility. We cannot deny the fact that
salvation, in the first recourse is a divine gift. It is an act of God’s
goodness that graciously forgives sinners and bring them back to him.
Therefore, no mankind could claim his merits on his salvation. Nevertheless,
the actualization or the effectiveness of this divine gift encounters our
freedom and calls for our responsibility. One can well give you something, it
is up to you either to welcome it or to reject it. If you do not open yourself
to receive it the gift remains inactive. So it is with God. he does not oblige
us to be saved. He makes no obligation to our will and our choices. Instead, he
bends before our freedom.
No man can be saved without his cooperation in God's plan.
And who says collaboration emphasizes freedom. Thus, in the first reading,
through the channel of the Prophet Ezekiel, the Lord utters, “By turning from
wickedness, a wicked person shall preserve his life.” The prophet warns the
common thinking of people. Many are we who, when confronted with some sad
situations and any disadvantageous happenings easily throws the guilt on God:
The Lord’s way is not fair!” Some even do not hesitate to state of God’s
injustice or that God does not love them. For, how comes that, they who are
24/7 in the church, very committed Christians, members of all the groups and
associations, have to suffer, while some other people who, obviously never come
to church, are not of good character, do not pray and at the limit deny God
live happily and blessed by him. If God is just, why the evildoers, the corrupt
politicians, the womanizers, the harlot, the drunkard, drug addict, and
abusers, those who show no exhibit sign of conversion prosper?
Just for reminder, we meditated last Sunday, 25th Sunday in
the ordinary time on the justice of God and our human justice. Is the Lord
just? Is his way fair when he deals with us? Through the prophet, we get the
answer from the Lord: “Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your
ways unfair?” And the subsequent sentences make it clearer. God is not unfair.
He just aligns himself to our freedom and calls us to be responsible for our
choices. “When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity and
dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.” It's our
actions and choices that redeem or condemn us, not God.
The Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, will deepen the nail of that
topic. The parable of the father and the two sons tells us how we behave with
God and what could be the consequences. We are told that it is not the one who
says yes, but the one who does what says God expects of him, who is obedient to
his will. For obedience is not in words but the actions. As we said ahead, the
lord comes to us through propositions and requests. He does not impose himself
to us for, he respects our freedom. “Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.”
It is left to our free will either to say yes or no. Many people hastily answer
"Yes", but do the "No", while others say "No",
but in the end repent and do the "Yes". What does it mean for us to
do God's will? Is it to say yes and behave the other way around or to say no
and repent by doing what he asks of us?
It is God's will that we all work for his kingdom to come.
He wants us to be his children obedient and respectful of this will.
Nevertheless, the Father respects our freedom. The conclusion Jesus gives of
the parable will then be a severe warning. Even those known as great sinners
could be saved and go ahead of us if we do not take time to open ourselves and
truly do the will of God.
It is not enough to be a good churchgoer. It is not enough
to claim our baptism or confirmation and all the sacraments we may have
received. The question is, do our lives and actions attest to our belonging to
the Lord? Regrettably, many are they who bear Christianity only by name. Their
lives are counter-testimonies to what they profess. We need a sincere humility
to acknowledge our weaknesses and even our wickedness, and so make the journey
of conversion. Though we may have said no to the Lord by our words and actions,
still we can come back to our senses and search for his will. St. Paul calls
that, to nurture the attitude of Christ; that is humility. For, it is only
through humility that one can accept his faults, his shortcomings, his lack of
consistency, and come to the right path. In humility, we do away with selfishness
and vainglory. We learn to accept that others have something more than we do
and are capable of goodness, and therefore, we search, no longer for our
selfish et egoistic interests, but rather that of others and all.
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