Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Today we celebrate the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The opening Prayer O God, who manifests your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy bestow, we pray your grace abundantly upon us to make those hastening to attain your promise heirs to the treasures of heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen. A reading from the Old Testament from the book of Ezekiel 18:25, 28th verse thus says the say the Lord’s way is not fair. Hear now, house of Israel. Is it my way that is unfair? Or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life. Since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. The Word of the Lord Remember your mercies, O Lord. Your ways, O Lord, make known to me. Teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior. Remember your mercies, O Lord. Remember that your compassion, O Lord, and your love are from of old. The sin of my youth and my frailties. Remember nothing in your kindness. Remember me because of your goodness, O Lord.
Remember your mercies, O Lord. Good and nightbright is the Lord. Thus he shows sinners the way, he guides the humble to justice and teaches the humble his way. Remember your mercies, O Lord. A reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, second chapter, first through the fifth verse.
Brothers and sisters, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory. Rather humbly regard others as more important than yourself, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, the word of the Lord. My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord. I know them and they follow me.
Hallelujah. The gospel for this Sunday is taken from St. Matthew 21st, chapter 28 to the 32nd verse. Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, what is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, son, go out and work in the vineyard today.
He said in reply, I will not. But afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, yes, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will? They answered the first.
Jesus said to them, amen. I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are ending the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him, but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him. The Gospel of the Lord. Take a few moments as we listen to the music to ponder the wisdom and the truth found in these readings.
Satan. From the very beginning of God’s relationship with human beings in a garden, sin was there. And ever since, we have struggled with this part of human nature that seems so foreign to who God is and who we are told we’re created to be. So when I look at the first reading, it’s clear that what’s being said is that the ways of God are fair. If you commit a sin, God destroys you, you die. Look at the covenant that was made to Noah when God decided to destroy the entire human race and all the animals, everything.
And when he was doing all that, he found just this one person that he thought, okay, maybe I’ll work with this one person. And what’s so powerful about that is the promise he made then was, I will never again destroy sinners. But throughout the Old Testament, the history between God and his people is really fraught with God separating himself from sinners, God condemning sinners, God judging sinners, God, you know, punishing them. It’s not until the New Testament that something radically new, something radically different comes into the picture. And what comes into the picture is what we’ve always longed for is a way to deal with sin, but by not motivating somebody to not sin by fear. And that’s what I think the readings are about today.
The God who created you and created me tells this wonderful salvation history story. And in that story, he has this wonderful progression of ideas and thoughts that move from a God of punishment to a God of love and a God of forgiveness. And so we know clearly that what we should see in the Old Testament is many things that had to be what they were because of the people that God was working with. But there’s so much in the Old Testament that we have to leave behind. And when you’ve been imbued in something and grown up in something, it’s so hard to get rid of that it’s a pattern in your very being. It seems if you’re guilty because everything, when you do something wrong and you feel separated instantly from God, that’s because that’s what you’ve been trying, trained to think.
And what has to happen is a change. And we see that so clearly in the Gospel. Jesus came into the world to change people. The Old Testament didn’t really talk that much about changing behavior from the inside out. It always seemed to say, there will be a reason for you to keep this commandment. So look at that, weigh it, and then choose.
Because if you’re smart, you’ll choose to do what you what God asks you to do, because then you’ll have God with you. But in the New Testament, it’s radically different. No, God says, not only am I with you in your sins, but if you’re a person who doesn’t feel the need to change, who lives in the past, who is working out of more, let’s say the Old Testament model. He’s saying, I have a really hard time reaching you because it’s so much a part of your life. You can’t imagine something other than the law being the thing that is going to save us from sin. It never will save us from sin.
It’ll only control behavior. So what does change us from sin? Well, Paul has a beautiful way of describing it. He’s saying so clearly that this Jesus who comes into the world is the model of what we’ve longed for from the very, very beginning. This being Christ, this teaching Christ, this truth that is in Christ has been longed for. And what we have to do is make sure that people understand it, embrace it, accept it.
And this is a hard thing, not a hard thing to say, but it’s a hard thing to do. To stop trying to earn it and try to give God permission to enter into your heart and to make you like Christ, make you like him. And what did he do? He destroyed sin. That’s what they tell us. He destroyed the power of sin.
How? He didn’t make stricter rules. No, he did this weird thing. He loved sinners. And in that love that he had. There was this grace, this energy, this force given to people who, when they are in sin and they know that they are deeply loved and that there is someone who believes in their potential to change and longs for them to be free of all the pain they’re in.
That’s their intention. When a person responds to their own sins and the sins of somebody else with that same disposition, compassion, mercy, they begin to feel a participation in something. The healing, transforming presence of God entering into the heart of a sinner will do the work that the law could never do. And what it does, it awakens in someone a sense that they are valued. And when they’re valued, they want other people to feel that value. When they feel the freedom of not being filled with shame and anger and fear all the time, they’re going to want that for other people.
And that’s way it’s supposed to work. Individuals believing in what’s been given to them, feeling its power and its beauty and wanting it to be given to others. And what melts away is all that judgment, condemnation, wanting to destroy someone. Because we think that this sin thing has to be hated out of the world, you know, destroyed and removed. We want to get rid of all the bad people and then we’ll have something wonderful. No, we want to transform all the bad people by doing what Christ tells us we should do.
And that’s to have a different disposition toward them when we’re longing for them to change and we believe they can change. It’s interesting. In the world today, there’s a lot of tension, and in religious circles there’s a lot of attention about change. Certainly true in the Catholic Church. People that are so used to the old way that we used to do things, especially the way we worship. Some people feel that that could not change, should not change.
And yet it’s clear that the Holy Spirit knows that we need different now than we did back then. And it may be unfamiliar, it may be difficult, it may not seem as comfortable, but that’s the direction God wants us to go toward. And I will tell you the fundamental difference is a religion that is private and a kind of separatist only wanting to be around the people that think and believe, like I do. To a community of believers who have been transformed by this extraordinary power of forgiveness and acceptance and wanting to give that to others. That’s the shift. That’s the change.
The closing prayer Father, the power that you have shared with us is beyond our imagining. You fill us with your spirit. And that spirit not only transforms us, but gives us the ability when we when we join your intention to save those who are struggling with darkness, that it will take place. Bless us with this faith and trust and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. I’m really excited about inviting you to my Fall Reflection Lecture. It’s entitled the Eye of the Heart.
The date is October 14th. The place is the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Lecture Hall. There is no charge for the event, but due to limited seating, it’s important that you register on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com the music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible.
Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2023.
