Father Randy Koenigsknecht
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In his September 27 homily, Father Randy reflects on the parable of the two sons and God’s invitation to work alongside Him. The Father calls each of us, wherever we are in our faith, to bring Him our whole lives and choose to follow Him today.
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Today is another one of those classic parables, a father with two sons sending them out to work in the vineyard. The one son initially says, yes, I will go. Then like many an angsty teenager backs out at the last second and refuses.
The other son is initially rebellious. No, I’m not interested. It won’t work.
And then later repents, comes back, and goes out in the vineyard and does his father’s will. What I find interesting here is that neither of them is the ideal son. The ideal son would be the one who says, yes, I will go, and actually goes out and then does it.
That’s not the case here, and this is important because probably none of us is the ideal son or daughter either. Certainly not of the Lord. All of us have many ways in which I’m sure we’ve said, you know what, Lord, I’m going to do it.
I’m going to change. I’m going to start following you. I’m going to give you my life.
Then the next day comes, it’s like, well, that was yesterday’s Father Randy. Today’s Father Randy’s ready for a break and wants to have a little fun, all right? Maybe another day we’ll come back and work. You know, or we’ve initially said, no, Lord, what you’re asking of me is too hard.
I don’t really want to do that. And then the Lord, time passed, the Lord works on us and eventually comes to the point of, all right, I’m ready now. I will go.
I will do it. I will follow you. And so the reality is that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is available to each one of us, no matter where we are at in that spectrum of people.
Whether we fully follow him, whether we don’t really know him, you know, still discovering, figuring things out, all are still called because underneath this parable is that kind of shocking truth. The two sons here, they represent two groups of people. One is the chief priests and the elders, those who’ve got it all together, those who know the Lord, those who should be following him most closely.
And the other is the tax collectors and the prostitutes, those who are far from God. I always think of when we hear about the tax collectors, these are people Jesus would have known well, those who would have tortured his family, his relatives. He would have known people who have been put in prison because of their greed, his own family members.
And what does he say? Both of these groups are made to hear the Father’s voice. Both of them hear the voice of the Father calling them to go out. Our Father does not discriminate between the saints and the sinners.
He calls all. He wishes to speak to all. His voice and the invitation to follow him is not just for the qualified, it’s not just for some special people, it is for everyone.
No matter where you fall in that spectrum, if you’re a great sinner or a holy church lady, you have been called. The Father wishes to speak to you because he’s a good Father and every father wants to be close to his children, wants to speak to them, wants to be with them. And so this invitation to go out and work, it’s not one where, you know, we kind of pat you on the back, all right, champ, go get them, go out there and do it.
No. It’s the Father going with them. His invitation, do you want to work with me? Do you want to work alongside me? Because he always invites us into relationship.
God does not want employees, he wants children. He wants his sons and daughters to be with him. I think of my poor dad growing up on the farm with seven boys.
You know, a lot of the work that we did was, you know, he needed us genuinely to do it. But there’s also plenty of times where dad just wanted us to be with him. He wanted to pass on what he knew.
He wanted us just to have the, just to work alongside and have that joy. You know, as a teenager, that’s certainly not what I wanted to be. I didn’t want to do that.
You know, every time he turned his back, we would always scatter. You know, I don’t know how we got anything done. But like, that’s how I learned how to do woodworking.
That’s how I learned, you know, like basic wiring, all these other skills, because my dad wanted me to be with him, wanted me to learn from him. And it’s the same invitation that God has for us. Do you want to be with me? Do you want to learn from me, to walk beside me in your daily life each day to make that choice? Because the chief priests and the elders, they were not bad people.
They weren’t going out around doing evil things. No, just the opposite. They were so focused on avoiding evil.
They were very focused on just trying to do the right thing. Like, no matter what. But in doing so, they lost focus on their relationship.
They lost focus on the actual person behind what they were doing. And so they were doing all these things to try and, you know, prove themselves to God. Look, we’re holy.
Look at what I do for you, God. Now we’re your children because we do all these amazing things. Whereas God’s saying, you’re already my sons.
I just want you to be with me. And you can be with me by doing good. I want to do good alongside you.
And so while they look the part, they didn’t truly belong to him. Their hearts weren’t there. Their hearts weren’t with him.
They forgot that positive part of life with God. It’s not just about avoiding evil. It’s not just about doing good.
It’s about living with someone. And a lot of good people live that way, precisely that way. All right, Lord, I don’t have any major sins in my life, so I’m doing okay.
We must be doing good. You know, or if I could just cut out this one part of my life. I could just fix that.
Everything would be okay. I would have a good standing with you. Now that would fix all my problems.
It’s really very similar to a concept I’ve been reading a little bit about lately. It’s that from 12 Steps of the Dry Drunk. The person who is sober, who’s not drinking, but is not sober in the rest of their lifestyle.
The rest of their lifestyle, they still act like an alcoholic. They still suffer with all the anger, the resentment. The broken relationships are not forgiving.
They’re not doing all those things that come with a holistically sober life. A lot of ways, I feel like in my past, I’ve wanted to live as a dry sinner. All right, Lord, I just want to get rid of the major sins.
That’s it. But the rest of my life, I don’t know if I really want to change that. I don’t know if I really want to give everything over to you.
You can have this part. But the rest, I want to hold on to. I don’t really want to invite you in there.
But that’s never going to work. That’s never going to work. Because I’ll slide back, or I won’t truly experience life.
I’ll just end up working for him. I won’t be a son. I’ll just be devoted to just checking boxes.
All right, I went to Mass. Good job. You know, I said a couple prayers.
Excellent. When that person cut me off, I just waved with all of my fingers. You know, simple things.
But there’s no heart behind it. It lacks the reality of, why do I do this? I do this so I can be with someone, so I can live with him. And that’s why he says, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering heaven before you.
Well, it’s tempting to say, well, that’s not fair. They’re not great people. They’re still struggling.
You know, most likely when they converted, their lives are not immediately different. Very few people, when they convert to the Lord, immediately leave behind all their sins. There’s a gradual process that has to unfold.
There’s a bit of a struggle that works there. But they are already entering into heaven because there’s a higher calling in our lives than to just avoid evil, than just to do good. We are called to be with someone.
So they enter heaven because they are living every day with the person who makes heaven heaven. The person who brings heaven down. And so they’re no longer waiting.
Even though, yes, they’re struggling, they’re growing because they’re living with him. They’re working in the vineyards of their own hearts. And they’re letting him be with them there.
And it’s beautiful. And we can ask like, okay, Lord, what would it look like if I were to give you more of that? What would it look like if I were to give you my free time? What if I were to give you more of my Sundays? Or what if, you know, what if I had to change, you know, relationships in my life? You know, what would that look like, Lord, if I were to invite you into those places? Because each of us is called to hear the Father’s voice. Each of us is called to the vineyard, to follow him, to make the choice each day, Lord, I’m going to live with you.
I’m going to live for you. And I want to give you all of my life. It starts with prayer.
God loves to talk to us. He’s a good father. Ask him questions.
Great questions to ask. God, do you want to speak to me? Spoiler alert, the answer is always going to be yes to that one. God, do you love me? Answer is also yes.
But very important to hear that from him, especially in places where we don’t feel particularly lovable, where we don’t feel like we’ve been living well as children. And then we can ask him the hard-hitting questions. God, what part of my life do you want to work in? What part of my life do I need to invite you into? Have I maybe been holding back? Now we can respond with gratitude.
Father, I thank you that you’ve called me. Thank you for the life that you’re holding out to me, that you want to live with me and dwell with me. I want to respond, Lord.
I want to live heaven now, that I can enter heaven here and now because heaven comes down in you. And so be generous to the Lord as he invites you. As you hear his call, respond freely.
Yes, Lord, I will go and make the choice today. Today, Lord, I will follow you. Today, I will go with you.
Today, Lord, I will follow you.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)