In today’s readings we are given our own bit of persuasion. The Gospel reading comes from the part of St. Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus is teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem. He has just thrown out the dealers and is being grilled by the most important members of the Jewish priesthood. Their agenda is to prove Jesus wrong and to get rid of Him. Jesus represents a danger to their status.
In the parable and its explanation, Jesus makes clear what the role of the chief priests is – they are the ones who say they will do their Father’s bidding but do not do it. Instead it is the tax collectors and prostitutes who hear the words of Jesus and change their ways. They do what the Father asks. Loving Christ is not just a two-way relationship between one person and Christ. It is a relationship that opens the hearts of those who believe, so that instead of showing love just to Christ, they learn to show love to everybody.
It can be tempting, when hearing today’s Gospel, to feel a little superior. We are not like the chief priests. We believe in Jesus and we follow Him. But if we really examine our lives, we will find times whe we fall short of what Jesus has called us to be. In our society, we are not likely to be executed for our faith like Jesus, or John the Baptist, or St. Paul all were. We can believe without our lives being in danger. There is a different danger for us: the danger of complacency, of being so comfortable in the practice of our faith that we neglect to let it have a real effect on the way we live and treat other people. Yet, if we are truly following Jesus, we are called to do the work He asks us to do, loving one another.