The Attitude of Jesus: Spend 5 with Jesus for Sunday, October 1, 2023

The Attitude of Jesus Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Sunday, October 1st, 2023. I am the friar, and it is wonderful to have you with us today. Because that's really, I think, at the heart of what some of the struggle is, is how to strike the appropriate balance between those truths, those principles that never change with those things that sometimes we have to let go of because God is doing something new in our lives. The readings, the gospel and the first reading kind of do a sort of parallel thing where you have somebody who said they're gonna do the right thing and then they turn away. And then you have, on the other hand, someone who started by turning away, then regretted it, had remorse and turned back to God, turned back to doing the right thing. Today's readings really kind of strike me as setting an important tone for something that is fundamentally a problem in our day and age, I think. Now maybe it's a problem in every day and age, but I think we all kind of struggle with with this sense of, in what place is there or what place can there be for something objective in our life that applies always and everywhere. And those types of things are really important and I think encouraging for us. But part of the challenge I think is that we can find ourselves living in an age where there really isn't a question of fairness because there isn't a question of a common standard that defines fairness. Here's what I mean. You will hear a little child say, "That's not fair." Generally speaking, when we get underneath the surface of that statement, what really is being said is, "I didn't get to do what I want" or "I didn't get what I want, and that's not fair." They don't really care much about the objective standards of fairness as much as they care that they get what they think they deserve. And we as adults are not much different really. How often have you heard the expression, You've got your truth, I've got mine? Don't bother me. As long as what you do doesn't bother me, I'm not gonna worry about it. The problem with that way of thinking is that when we think that way, what happens is by the time we discover or find the problem, it's too late. Things have already spiraled out of control and the solution is really that much more difficult. So what is the point of these readings today? Well, the biggest point is to recognize that if you're going to put any emphasis on something, you should put it on the fact that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful. If there is going to be a standard, then it only makes sense that the smartest person the room, namely Almighty God, would in fact get pride of place and more than pride of place in helping us to understand what it means to be accountable to God. What it means to follow Him, what it means to do His will. It's not enough just to say we're doing God's will, we actually have to do God's will. And that's really an important factor. In the first reading, part of what Ezekiel is really addressing is the fact that there was a feeling that when bad things happened in the present age it was because of something horrible that had happened previously by their ancestors. They were being punished for the bad sins of, I don't know, their father or their grandfather or whatever. And Ezekiel is making a clear point about morality. No, that's not true. What really is true is that every person is responsible for their own moral life. And that's what Ezekiel is saying today. That's what he's helping us to understand. Jesus now takes this and goes a little bit farther with it. And what he means is that when we look at these two sons, one who says, "I'm not gonna go," but then regrets saying that and goes, and another who says he's gonna go but ultimately doesn't, that it's the one who actually does what God wants that is pleasing to God. . .