It is never too late to turn back to God

Homily for Twenty Sixth Sunday of Year A

I'm sure most of you will have had the experience of using a GPS navigator such as a Garmin or TomTom, or perhaps at least Google Maps on your cell phones in order to get to a particular destination. Perhaps you, like me, have sometimes missed a turnoff, and perhaps you have heard a few loud beeps, and then a voice saying, "recalculating". Perhaps in some extreme cases you may have heard, "Make a U-Turn in 100 metres." This complete turnaround is a good image of repentance for sin and conversion that is needed if we are to enter into life. There is a direct connection between repentance for sin and changing our lives and entering into life.

We might easily and glibly say we believe in life after death, but most often we shape that belief in such a way that it makes no demands on us and is as convenient as possible. You might say that thinking about death and the consequence of sin is an inconvenient truth. But surely, we have at least at one time or another thought that how we live this life must matter for the life to come?

In today's first reading Ezekiel gives us an understanding of God's justice. The whole passage is a response to the accusation that God is not fair. The people complain: surely a good person who slips up should get credit for all their past goodness? And surely a sinner who repents shouldn't get off so lightly? In response we are taught that we are personally accountable for our sins, and that repentance and conversion in the here and now matter. Ezekiel puts it bluntly, saying that when a good person turns away from the right path and sins, "he shall die for it." As the Letter to the Romans says, "the wages of sin is death." And lest we think that this does not apply to us, we hear further that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Now if this were the whole message of the Gospel, if there were nothing further, we would truly be the most wretched of creatures. But the whole point of the Gospel is that change is possible, it is never too late to convert, to change our minds, and that forgiveness of sins is possible. We can repent and start again in the grace of God's forgiveness. And our conversion is not something airy-fairy, something floating in the sky, not a warm feeling in our chests. It is something concrete, it looks like something: going to confession, mending a broken relationship, letting go of a grudge, or finally doing the good we have long promised to do. It involves a complete turnaround, a U-turn, a change in the way we live our lives.

The opening prayer for Mass this weekend is one I look forward to every twenty-sixth Sunday of the year. The first lines express the foundation of Christianity: O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy. So, hear the good news that God's almighty power is expressed in mercy and compassion; there is hope for us.

God's justice is about being accountable but also about receiving mercy. We are not given a licence to do whatever we want; we are accountable for our actions. But at the same time there is always the possibility of receiving forgiveness. The way we are living now, not so much our past actions, matters in the eyes of God. No matter how often we have fallen, if today we are repentant sinners, God is ever ready to forgive and accepts us as his children.

In his book, "The Name of God is Mercy," Pope Francis puts it like this: "The most important thing in the life of every man and every woman is not that they should never fall along the way. The important thing is always to get back up, not to stay on the ground licking your wounds. For as long as we are alive, it is always possible to start again."

This is a message of exquisite hope. The responsorial psalm for Mass celebrates this mercy of God. There is a plea to God to not remember our sins but rather to keep in mind his merciful love for us.

Words and Deeds

For our Gospel for this Sunday, we have another parable of Jesus, this time about a man sending his two sons to work in the vineyard. The rebellious first son refused. In a culture where it was a given that sons were to honour and obey their fathers, this son's initial "I will not" is a shameful act of defiance. But then he reconsidered, he repented, and he went into the vineyard. The second son agreed to go, even addressing his father with great respect, calling him 'sir', but did not go. This parable illustrates two ways of responding to God's invitation and call to obedience.

Jesus likens the repentant tax collectors and prostitutes to the first son, and the chief priests and elders to the second. It would be hard to overstate how provocative, challenging, and scandalous Jesus' reference to tax collectors and prostitutes would have been. Tax collectors and prostitutes would have been utterly despised by their fellow Jews. They would have been regarded as completely rejected by God with no hope of salvation. And so, it would have been plain offensive to hear Jesus saying that the tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of God first. Jesus is teaching that obedience does not consist of saying "yes" or "no", but always of acting, in doing good.

With this simple example, Jesus wants us to go beyond a religion understood only as external and habitual practice, which does not affect people's lives and attitudes. In following through on our faith commitment, are we more like the chief priests and elders, the second son? We have committed ourselves to Christ; do we follow through? Remember Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much is expected."

How complacent are we about our faith practice? Are we in danger of the serious sin of presumption? Sometimes those who know how badly they needed forgiveness are more grateful than those of us who think we didn't. Those who have repented and experienced the overwhelming mercy of God have that forgiveness forever etched in their minds. They are not complacent, but rather live in constant gratitude and appreciation to God.

There are two messages coming out of the first reading and Gospel, loud and clear. On the one hand, we can never be complacent about our relationship with God. It is possible for any of us at any time to find ourselves falling away from our commitment to Jesus and to his Gospel.

God's love and his grace are always available, but they can be rejected and neglected by us, and we can be in danger of "dying in our sin," to use the language of the first reading.

On the other hand, no matter how far we have strayed from God, no matter how wrong we have got it, it is never too late to turn back, and we can be absolutely sure that a warm, no-questions-asked welcome is waiting for us.

Wherever we are on the road today, whether we've drifted a little or missed the turnoff by miles, God doesn't switch off the navigator. He simply says, "Recalculating." We are called to repentance and conversion. The first son made that U-turn. The question for each of us this week is: where do I need to make mine?