XXVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Called to authenticity

Readings: Ezek 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32

Today’s Readings invite us to take our faith seriously. Belonging to the Church, attending its liturgies, and participating in its sacraments are not enough to feel “in the clear”. The first Reading presents Ezekiel, the great prophet of individual responsibility, who reminds us that what matters is our orthopraxis, our personal concrete obedience to the Lord (Ezek 18:25-28). The Gospel even announces that prostitutes and sinners will precede into the Kingdom of heaven many who considered themselves “righteous” through social or ecclesial standing (Mt 21:28-31). Therefore, an outward, merely ritual religiosity is not enough: “Then you will begin to say, «We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.» But he will say, «I tell you, I do not know where you come from»” (Lk 13:22-30); “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… Many will say to me on that day, «Lord, did we not prophesy… and drive out demons… and perform many miracles in your name?». Then I will declare to them, «I never knew you; away from me, you evildoers»” (Mt 7:12-23).

Paul in the second Reading affirms that being Christian means having “the same mind that was in Christ Jesus”, knowing how to “empty oneself” like him, “become servants”, “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:1-11). As John will exhort: “Let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18). Concerning the sinful woman, Jesus affirms: “Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much” (Lk 7:47). Indeed, as Peter will say, “charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8). In fact, according to the word of the Lord, many will be saved solely because they helped the poor, even without knowing Christ: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). Just as many who, even without knowing him, did not serve him in the needy and the suffering will not have access to salvation (Mt 25:44-46).

The Eucharist can therefore also be an occasion for hypocrisy, an illusion of salvation (1 Cor 11:29). Think of how many Masses are celebrated for Mafia bosses, or for armies engaged in wars, or for perpetrators of violence, or for business figures whose choices cause death by starvation or curable diseases for so many poor people worldwide; or for us when we refuse to truly convert… The Eucharist is always something extremely serious and demanding: celebrating it is not a mere ritual that clears one’s conscience: it means becoming one with Christ, and then going out into the world to become like him a total gift, willing to sacrifice one’s life for love. “The Lord’s supper is the center, the heart of the great mystery of Christ’s presence in all times… If one remains on the surface, at the margins of this way in which the Son of God manifests himself and is present; if one limits oneself to a formal or ritual consumption of what the Lord’s supper offers; if contact with this immense reality is reduced to an intimistic and sentimental experience; if celebrating the Eucharist does not shatter personal resistance, mental and social categories, does not open up an authentic interior and ecclesial experience of fellowship around Christ, it means that faith does not define, does not mature the personality according to the image of God within us that must be revealed, does not establish true universality, of mercy, of tenderness, of grace, of peacemaking gratuitousness. On the contrary, hypocrisy divides us, masks us; we do not have the right garment” (D. M. Turoldo).