Today,
we contemplate the father who had two sons and went to the first and
said to him: «Son, today go and work in my vineyard» (Mt
21:28). And he answered: «‘I don't want to’. But
later he thought better of it and went» (Mt 21:29).
Then, he also went to the second with the same command. And he
replied: «‘I will go, sir’, but he did not go»
(cf. Mt 21:30). What really matters is not saying “yes”,
but “doing it”. As the saying goes «actions speak
louder than words».
On
another occasion, Jesus will refer to the doctrine taught by this
parable: «Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’,
will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will
of my Father in Heaven» (Mt 7:21). As Saint Augustine
wrote, «there are two wills. Your will has to be corrected so
as to identify it with God's will; but do not try to bend God's will
to adapt it to yours». In the Catalan language we say a child
“believes” you to mean he obeys you. There is an
identification of obedience and faith, of the reationship that exists
between trust and obedience.
Obedience
comes from the Latin composition “ob-audire”:
meaning, to listen with great attention. And this is should be
evident in our prayer, in our not turning “a deaf ear” to
the voice of Love. «We men tend to “defend ourselves”,
to adhere to our selfishness. But God demands that, when obeying Him,
we put our faith to work. At times, our Lord suggests what He wants
in a whisper, deep, down, inside our conscience: we must remain on
high alert to be able to distinguish his voice and be faithful to it»
(Saint Josemaria Escrivà). To abide by God's will implies
becoming a saint; to obey does not mean to be a puppet in someone
else's hands, but to interiorize what we must accomplish: and then,
to do it “because you feel like it”.
Our
Mother, the Virgin Mary, a great teacher of obedience to the
faith, will show us the way to learn how to obey the will
of the Father.
