The second half of the parable of the two sons has a shocking paradox. Tax collectors and prostitutes - who are unclean sinners and therefore cast out of the community - will enter the Kingdom of God before the religious leaders.
The person and preaching of Jesus attracted all sorts of people who lived on the fringes of society and the religious establishment. The secular and religious powers oppressed them. Tensions soon developed among Jesus’ disciples - between the rich and poor, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, the socially acceptable, and those considered social outcasts.
For Jesus, nobody was ever an outsider, a lost cause. He was inclusive. Notice how he did not only spend time with those on the margins, he also invited them to an opportunity to start again. He went to where they were, so he was accused of mixing with the unclean. He did not wait for them to come to him.
Jesus did what God
continues to do with all of us. God does not wait for us to “walk the talk” before God encounters us. God comes to us in Jesus. When we were floundering and lost, blind and could not see, the light came into the world.
In the parable, we learn that the public sinners who said no to God begin to recognise their need to repent, change their minds and return to
God. Those who thought themselves religiously righteous saw no need to repent. They say yes to God but do not “walk the talk”.
As the Catholic Church enters into this month-long time of Synod, one of the burning issues is the Church’s ability to be a home to all. In our churches, we can be like the exclusionary righteous religious in Jesus’ time. This parable is
supposed to shock us. It invites us to look at how well we “walk the talk”.
Take time to reflect on how you make your religious community a home for all - or not. Do you tend to be exclusive? Who might be the ‘outcasts’ Jesus is inviting you to reach out to in your church community today? Do you ‘walk the talk’ or do you tend to say ‘yes’ like the son who
did not go in the end?
Reflections by Fr Russell Pollitt SJ
