Mark Twain: When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. Bur when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

If you remember last week’s Gospel parable, it was rather shocking and seemingly unjust.  The landowner sent workers to work in his vineyard at different hours of the day.  The master then paid the workers who worked one hour the same pay as those who worked in the heat of the day all eight hours.  It wasn’t fair.  It is difficult, is it not, to give up the religion of merits and believe in the gratuitous love of God.

Today’s Gospel parable is a conversion story.  A man had two sons.  He came to the first and said: ‘Son out and work in the vineyard today.  He said in reply, ‘I will not go,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went.  Saying yes to God means giving one’s own thoughts and accepting His.  The Lord does not appreciate the powerful who sit on thrones but lowers himself to raise up the lowly.  He does not reward the righteous for their merits but makes himself companion of the weak and introduces the tax collectors and prostitutes first in the kingdom.  Only those who recognize themselves as last, sinners and in need of his help will experience the joy of being saved.

Where do we find ourselves in this Gospel parable?  The scribes and the Pharisees were ones who said yes to the kingdom of God as the religious elite.  Their Achilles’ heel was their illusion of being saved by their pious religious practices, and yet Jesus in this parable is being very direct and confronting with the religious leaders of his day by saying the tax collectors and prostitutes were going to enter the kingdom of God first.  The kingdom of God welcomes unexpected folks.

This parable challenges us as well:  what effect have our prayers and religious practices have had on our daily life?  Do they put an end to hatred, wars, and abuses?  While continuing to profess ourselves Christians, do we easily resign ourselves to a life of compromise?  Don’t we live with injustice, inequality and discrimination?

In today’s Gospel parable, the father told his two sons to work in the vineyard today.  As you pray over this gospel, into what vineyard is the Lord sending you today -- the vineyard of your family, of your neighborhood, of your parish, of saying yes to the call of stewardship in our parish faith formation programs, the vineyard of supporting the CMA?  Into what vineyard is the Lord sending you today?

We know from the second chapter of Mark’s gospel that Jesus came not to call the just but sinners.  This leaves with confusing premise.  Does this mean that only sinners are Christians? 

What are today’s versions of saying no to the will of God in our lives?  I can’t bother with religion. I’m too busy getting ahead in life.  I’m too busy having fun.  The Church has too many defects.  My sinfulness is saying no God in my life.  Perhaps we have all lived through the experience of receiving repeated messages that we should change our lives.  The messages come from different quarters --- a member of our family, a friend, our own bodies, and the failure of someone close to us.

Yes, we are all sinners. This is the truth of our lives.  Pope Francis calls us to this awareness in his daily homilies.   We are all like the son who initially said no to God’s plan in our life.  The parable is a conversion story.  Our conversion story is a more convinced “yes” passes through no. What does that mean?  That was the conversion of the son who initially said no to his father but later changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard. May we have the spiritual sightedness to see that the first to apologize is the bravest.  The first to forgive is the strongest.   And the first to forget is the happiest.

I have been struck by the words of Mark Twain who once said:  When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

Just as Mark Twain had a conversion experience about the wisdom of his dad, so too we have a conversion experience about the meaning of our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  Yes we are called to a life of stewardship.  Our actions make a difference in building the kingdom of God here on earth.  Yet, our salvation is not based on our merits but we are the recipients of the gratuitous love of God much more than we deserve.  Our best response to God’s love is gratitude.  And so we gather at Mass to give thanks to the Lord our God.

In the second Scripture reading, Paul begins his beautiful hymn to Christ by encouraging the Philippians to have the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose as did Jesus.  “Have in you the attitude that was also in Christ Jesus.  Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; he humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on a cross?”

What does it mean for you to have the same attitude as Jesus Christ?  Are you in touch with your own conversion story?  God calls us who are sinners, who have said no to God’s call in our sinfulness but yet we somehow open ourselves to receive the merciful love of Jesus.  Yes, our conversion story is a more convinced yes passes through no.  We always stand in need of the generosity and forgiveness of God.  More than that, we need to experience conversion many times, and we are called each and every day to say yes to the plan of God in life.    

As we celebrate our Stewardship Sunday day in the stewardship of faith formation, I would suggest that how we use and share the blessings we have been given is a significant component of our conversion story.  Like the sons in the Gospel, are we saying yes or no to God’s way in our life?  Our whole parish needs to be invested in the faith formation of our youth from one generation to the next.  It can never be solely a staff responsibility. It is a parish responsibility.  Helping out a bit in faith formation and/or youth ministry is a must beautiful way of experiencing the conversion the Lord calls us to.   We are to share the blessings the Lord has abundantly given to us by the significant people of our lives who have touched us in our faith journey.

Have a blessed day.