Do we communicate our Gospel values with words, or by the way we live? That is the challenge posed in today’s Gospel.
Let’s face it. We all have been like each of those brothers. Who hasn’t reneged on something we said we would do? I still feel shame some thirty years later when I think back on agreeing to write a ministry booklet for the parish I was in at the time, and then never getting it done. There have been times, too, when I told someone I simply couldn’t take on guiding that retreat, writing that article, serving on that board, only to reflect further on the matter and change my mind.
Jesus often grows frustrated with those of us who say one thing and do another. Woe to you hypocrites, he says, “For you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanliness.”
Look, I get it. It’s not easy to live out Jesus’ teachings. He asks us to care for others even when it is inconvenient. He wants us to treat those who hurt us with kindness, to pay attention to people we’d rather ignore or forget. He washes the feet of the disciples and asks us to imitate that same servant spirit. Still, what is the alternative? A heart full of dead people’s bones?
We are nearing the end of Advent, a time that calls on us to press the reset button on whatever has been keeping us from proclaiming the Gospel with our lives. Can our actions reflect a vital inner life? Can our yes be yes, and our no be no?
