First reading: Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm: Ps 25:4-9
Epistle: Philippians 2:1-11
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32

If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.

The righteous do not see the dirty. That is the Lord’s warning to us. It is His call to us. We are to open our eyes to life as a Christian, as a follower of Christ.

Think of the key words from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: encouragement, solace, participation, compassion, mercy, joy, love, unity. These are the attributes of the Christian community and of His followers. These attributes are the markers by which we are to define ourselves. They are the signs the world is to see when they look to us.

Paul goes on in one of the most beautiful hymns in all the scriptures – the great Christological hymn, wherein he tells us that Christ:

emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
He humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

The Christian way of life is the open way. It is the way that welcomes and accepts all those who come. It is the way that sees Christ when our neighbor approaches. It is life in a community that lays out all its gifts to those who approach.

This lesson is not the result of moral stories, Jesus coming as a beggar, and our call to open the door, but rather because Christ did come as man. In doing so He raised up humanity. He intrinsically joined humanity to God in His incarnation. As such we are to honor, serve, and open our gifts to all men.

In coming Jesus came as the poor, as the itinerant. Jesus was the focus of condemnation from the powers that be. Jesus was the one who came and who had no place to lay His head.

Brothers and sisters,

Jesus knows the hearts of men. He knows that we can easily fall into a comfortable state. That state is the place where we feel assured – of salvation, of God’s favor, of our regeneration. He warned the chief priests and elders:

“Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.—

He warned them and warns us, because like them we often fail to see the dirty, the broken, those who come to us in search of the gift. We fail to see those who reach out to us in so many ways every day – just looking for Christ to be made present to them, in our words and actions. The chief priests and elders didn’t see God in their poorest of brothers, in the outcasts and untouchables. They only saw themselves.

Jesus goes on to say:

—When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him—

John was derided as well. An outcast, living a dirty and miserable existence in the wilderness. A crazy man who proclaimed an indictment against the unrepentant rich and powerful. Yet those who felt trapped in unrighteousness, who came seeking the gift, were the ones who saw John for what he truly was. Jesus says:

“but tax collectors and prostitutes [believed him].”

My friends,

We are blessed. We have the solace and comfort of the Holy Church. We have every advantage a believer can have. Our call is to take that advantage and solace — all the gifts we have — and bring them to those caught in unrighteousness, those trapped without hope, those without the Word, those seeking the gift, those who ask in big and small ways — please show me Jesus.

We must reawaken ourselves from our slumber. We must see anew with the eyes of Christ — in each and every interaction. We are called to see beyond appearance, beyond politics, beyond the false walls built upon the stereotypes and dangers the world sees. We are to see those who need, those who search, those who ask.

We have great gifts in encouragement, solace, participation, compassion, mercy, joy, love, and unity. We have the example of Christ whom the world did not recognize (John 1:10-11):

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.
He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

…and we know that God is the God of salvation.

So we must be careful to recognize, to see, to share the gifts; to share each and every day with each and every person That is what we must do to be like the son who recanted and did the will of his father. We cannot simply say yes, yes, nod, and slumber away our days in righteousness. We must see with eyes wide open. We must offer all we have. We must do! Otherwise we will have missed the sign and Jesus may well say of us:

—Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds”

Amen.