In today's Gospel, our Lord is giving a very simple, but yet profound lesson to the chief priest and the elders of the people.
And it is a lesson that each and every one of us within the mystical body of Christ can discern.
It is interesting to note that it is the second child who says he will do the will of God, but does not.
And it's the first who first claims he will not go into his father's vineyard, but yet he winds up going.
And if we understand the history of salvation, we know why our Lord spoke in precisely this manner.
For strictly speaking,
there were no chosen people until God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees.
And so it was that all mankind had fallen into paganism.
And then the Lord chose a people to preserve and to protect the truth until the time would come for its full revelation.
And so the second child, that is the descendants of Abraham, were the ones who were promised to do the will of God.
But yet they would not.
And so our Lord concludes by saying,
that the tax collectors and the prostitutes will come and feast in the kingdom of God.
That is, those pagans of old and the present pagans who lived right alongside with the chosen people
would ultimately accept the will of God, accept the revelation of God.
And so we have much to learn because there is also an analogy that we are to learn as members of the mystical body.
For we are the new chosen people of God.
And so we must constantly do his will.
And so it is.
And so it is always important for us to reflect upon the vices and the faults and failings of the Pharisees and scribes.
For essentially, they fell into lust.
They fell into repine.
They fell into usury.
They fell into jealousies and envies.
And it was this that would cause them to be blinded to the will of God.
And even as we learn in today's first reading, even when God himself would come to correct them,
they would not accept the correction.
For they had come up with their own man-made rules,
their own man-made rules,
their own man-made ways.
They had judged things according to their own will and not according to the will of God.
And so they sought to impose upon the people not the will of God as manifested through the hierarchical structure
by which God's kingdom always operates, but by their own discerning and their own supposed truth.
And so they would lead not only themselves astray, but the people astray.
And so the Lord would come in order to try to bring them to their senses.
For the most part, we see that they have rejected this intercession of Almighty God.
And so our Lord will tell them ultimately because they refused the yoke of his correction that they would perish in their sins.
And so this is a very important lesson for all of us to learn.
For as members of the mystical body, we must be governed by the principles and ordinances of the church,
not by our own opinions and our own ways and our own thoughts.
If we are to always and everywhere do the work of God, we must do the work of God.
And this is most especially important for us to remember who see the plight of the modern world
and wish to cooperate in the mission of the Savior and his mother to bring about a change in the modern world.
For if we operate in the manner of the Pharisees and scribes, we only convince ourselves of our holiness.
And yet we are really pursuing our eternal damnation.
And so we must learn from the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God to completely always be submissive to the will of God.
Amen.
And we can be assured of that by following the yoke of obedience, each and every one according to their vocation.
For God has not left one member of the mystical body in a position by which they can be an island unto himself,
in a position by which they can be governed by their own thoughts and their own opinions.
He has established a hierarchical structure, and that hierarchical structure flows down from Christ the head to the vicar of Christ,
to the bishops united with him, to the priesthood.
The priests who are supposed to be doing the will of the bishops united to the Lord,
and they are to inform the faithful in each and every one of the faithful according to their place in the mystical body,
has a way to follow this hierarchical structure.
The father, as the head of the house, must conform himself ultimately to Christ the head.
The mother must be obedient to the father, and hence she is obedient to Christ.
And the children must be obedient to the mother,
because she is obedient to the father.
He is obedient to the father, who is obedient to Christ.
And so, it is a very simple hierarchical structure,
and it is the preservation of peace within the mystical body.
And so, let us strive not to be deceived by the lust of the Pharisees,
by the repine of the Pharisees,
by the usurious practices of the Pharisees,
and by the jealousies and envies of the Pharisees,
for they simply blind us, and we govern according to our own opinion,
and hence,
we do not accept a correction, even when it is given.
We refuse because we have convinced ourselves in our obstinacy,
that our way is the true way,
and so, we ultimately risk abandoning the way of Christ.
And so, let us strive, each and every moment of our lives,
to pray for that grace, that virtue,
which St. Maximilian Mary Colby said was even more important than the life of prayer,
and that was the virtue of obedience.
For he said,
obedience,
was like a mystery of faith and yet it is not often easy for us to practice for we in our pride
often think that under under the guise of obedience we are doing what is obedient to the
will of God but once we make decisions and discern things outside of what has been revealed to us
by those whom God has entrusted with our care that is our superiors each and every one according to
where we are in the mystical body we have abandoned the way of obedience and so let us
strive always and everywhere that when we step outside of obedience ourselves we at least have
the grace to accept the correction of the Lord for in today's first reading we see very clearly
that it was the refusal of the Pharisees and the scribes to accept the correction of the Lord that
caused them as it were ultimately to lose their souls it wasn't that the Lord didn't try he
tried to burn through us for you and that is why we have to work in the way of obedience
he tried to burn through us for you and that is why we have to work in the way of obedience
every way he could. He tried through St. John the Baptist first. He would try directly himself. He
would try through his apostles. But for the most part, the leaders of the people would refuse to
accept the correction and hence ultimately refuse to accept the yoke of the Lord. And so let us
always be strengthened by that truth of our faith, that as he says, his yoke is easy and his burden
in light because he always gives us the grace to do what is right. And so it is most difficult for
us to lose our souls because to save our souls is the easiest thing, strictly speaking, in the world
for us to do because God never gives any human being, whether they be inside the mystical body
of Christ or outside, he never gives them the grace to do what is evil. He always gives them
the grace to do what is right. So inside the body, he is giving to us,
at the moment, the grace to do what is right. And so let us always be strengthened by that truth of
this very moment, the grace to be witnesses to the world of his love and his kindness. Outside of
the body, he has given the grace to respond to his graces that are calling each and every human being
into the mystical body of Christ. And so let us, by taking on that yoke of obedience,
truly strive to cooperate in the mission of Christ the King, our Savior, and his mother,
our Queen, the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that always,
always cooperating with them, we are truly always under the yoke of obedience and at the same time
always seeking to draw souls into that most blessed of all kingdoms, that kingdom that has
been established in our very midst, that is the kingdom of God, the Roman Catholic Church on this
earth, so that we may enter into that kingdom where all her triumphant sons and daughters
are now praising their good God together for all eternity.
And so let us, by taking on that yoke of obedience, truly strive to cooperate in the mission of Christ the King,
our Savior, and his mother, our Queen, that is the kingdom of God, our Savior, and his mother,