Fr Anthony Keane OSB
We have heard in today’s gospel of a man with two sons. He
tells the first to go and work in the vineyard. This first son
says he will not go, but afterwards thinks the better of it and
goes and works. The man tells his second son to go and work
there too. This second son says ‘certainly I will’ but does not
go to work.
Which of the two do we think did the father’s will? Jesus says elsewhere: It is not those who say Lord, Lord who are saved, but those who do the will of the father. Similarly, we may see that both sons answered superficially: The first who said he wouldn’t but then did and the second who said he would but then failed in the deed. Neither of them knew the great power that could work through them. For the Lord has said: Deep within their beings I will implant my law; I will write it on their hearts.
Indeed it is for this very reason that we have a heart that beats
within us, that hearing it we may rejoice greatly in the great gift of life we have been given, and so attain to the bliss of continuous prayer. And Saint Benedict advises those who do good that they may happily avoid the danger of pride by rejoicing in the power of God who works within them.
This the first son happily discovered, and guided and impelled
by the Holy Spirit, effortlessly fulfilled the command of the
Father. My we too do likewise.