Understanding the Word

By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

The issue in the first reading is the matter of retribution, the manner in which  God rewards righteous living and punishes wicked behavior. Two situations  are described. In the first one, a righteous person sins; in the second, a sinner  repents. God metes out punishment in the first situation and grants a reward  in the second. Actually, having chosen another path, the once righteous person  now suffers the consequences of that choice. In like manner, the sinner who turns  away from wickedness and chooses the path of righteousness and justice will live  united with God, the source of life. Is this injustice on God’s part? 

The reading from Philippians is one of Christianity’s most exalted hymns of  praise of Christ. Paul offered this magnificent vision of Christ’s self-emptying to challenge the Philippians’ own attitudes of mind and heart. Not only did Christ relinquish his Godlike state, he emptied himself of it. Without losing his Godlike being,  he took on the likeness of human beings, not merely resembling a human being,  but actually becoming one. As a result, his exaltation is as glorious as his humiliation  was debasing. Every knee shall do him homage and every tongue shall proclaim his  sovereignty. The entire created universe is brought under his lordship. 

The sons in the Gospel story represent two ways of responding to a father’s  command. The first son refuses to obey, a serious breach of protocol in a patriarchal kinship structure. However, the headstrong son repents and eventually  does what his father charged him to do. The second son does not show such  disrespect to his father by refusing to go as he was directed, but neither does  he obey him. Jesus turns to his adversaries and asks them for an interpretation  of the law: Which one did the father’s will? Without knowing it, they condemned  themselves with their answer, for they prided themselves on their righteousness  and piety, yet they refused to accept him. 

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