Monday, December 22, 2015 in the Fourth Week of Advent

Luke 1, 46-56

Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. for he has looked upon his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.

The Blessed Virgin Mary learned of the pregnancy, already advanced, of her relative Elizabeth from the Angel Gabriel during the course of the Annunciation.  Gabriel mentions it as an example of how “no word shall be impossible with God” (Luke 1, 37). It is curious that he chooses to speak of Elizabeth’s pregnancy — great as it is — rather than some great event of the past as proof of God’s omnipotence. For instance, Gabriel could have spoken of the parting of the Red Sea, or of how God created the heavens and the earth. But he does not do this. Instead, he tells her of Elizabeth.

Nor did necessity press the Virgin into going into the hill country of Judea, outside Jerusalem. As the wife of a priest, many friends and relatives would have presumably flocked to her side to assist her.  And Mary had just received this unprecedented news of her own, that she, a Virgin, would conceive the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. But she who saw herself as the lowly handmaid of the Lord — who sat at her Master’s feet awaiting the slightest gesture of his hand to indicate some service for her — got up and proceeded “in haste” to her relative. The merest hint of some work her Master decided upon sent her into motion.

She undertook her journey to the house of Zechariah not as a burden to be borne but as a welcome opportunity to demonstrate her love for the Lord God, proving the truth of what St. Paul would write decades later: “The virgin thinks on the things of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7, 34). This is the same Handmaid who quietly assists with the wedding feast at Cana, preferring the company of the servants than of the other guests.

“Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.” Since the Evangelist does not tell us, we can speculate as to whether Mary left before or after the birth of Elizabeth’s child. We should understand that Mary did have responsibilities back in Nazareth, first and foremost her own wedding feast, when Joseph would lead her to his house as his wife. But this need not preclude Mary from being present for the birth. In fact, one ancient writer says that she acted as the midwife, though this certainly did mot happen. We can surmise that she did stay for this happy event, and then practically unnoticed, she slipped back to her hometown, her work completed.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2025

Matthew 1, 18–24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

“Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man.”  St. Matthew, writing for the first generation of Jewish Christians, emphasizes righteousness in his Gospel, the essential attribute of God which humans could share in through following the Law of Moses.  For this reason, he shows the righteousness of the Lord’s parents.  He does not merely state that Joseph and Mary were righteous, but shows it in their words and actions.  In doing this, Matthew shows himself to be a reliable source since he does not wince at mentioning difficult situations but admits them freely, then presents Joseph and Mary as navigating through them in the way righteous people should.  

Here, he shows that Mary and Joseph are betrothed: he has formally gone to the house of her parents and asked for her hand, she has consented to be his wife, and the parents have signaled their approval.  She is to remain with her parents until Joseph can arrange the reception at his house to which he will lead her.  Weeks or months may pass first.  But then Matthew tells us that before Joseph can do this, she “was found with child through the Holy Spirit”.  That is, accounting for the Hebrew idiom Matthew undoubtedly used, Joseph found that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  How did he find this out?  Not through an angel, for an angel comes to him after he has learned this to guide him.  As the Fathers tell us, Mary told him, for only Mary could have known that she was with child “through the Holy Spirit”.  Joseph, then, as a righteous man must decide for himself what course he is to take in this unprecedented situation.  If he were not a righteous man and had not believed Mary, he would have denounced her.  

It is precisely because of his determination to act righteously that he has to decide what his place is.  Right away he rules out exposing her to “shame”, as the lectionary has it, though the Greek actually means “publicly announcing her secret”.  If her miraculous pregnancy was meant to be publicized, it would be the work of the angels, not of a carpenter.  Thinking over what Mary has told him, he cannot think of a role for him in her life and in the life of her Child.  Gabriel had said nothing to Mary about living with Joseph as his wife.  He concludes that he is supposed to simply walk away, thoroughly unworthy as he knows himself to be part of the life of the Virgin Mary and of the Son of God who would be born of her.  The matter of “divorce”, as the lectionary has it, does not come up for him.  The Greek, in fact, means “separation”.  There is no need of a divorce anyway, as she has not come to live with him.  

Through his prayers for divine assistance and his absolute determination to act righteously, God sent an angel (very possibly Gabriel) to point out to Joseph the most righteous course of action: to take the Virgin into his home as his wife.  He had not considered the lowliness with which the Son of God would come into the world and live in it.  According to the Pharisees, the arrival of the Messiah would be accompanied by great pomp and circumstance.  That the Son of God would live in the house of a carpenter in a remote town in Galilee required greater faith from him than that Mary, whom he knew to be holy, had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  As a righteous man, he obeyed at once the command of the Lord as relayed to him by the angel.  Perhaps the reception was ready, perhaps not.  But God must be obeyed.  This obedience is the key to righteousness.  It marks the Incarnation itself in which the Son obeyed the Father in leaving his glory behind in heaven to walk the harsh roads of earth.  It marks the ready consent of the Virgin Mary to God’s plan for her to be both Virgin and Mother.  It marks the ready consent of Joseph, once he learned of God’s will, to throw away the plan he had made in good conscience and to humbly take his place as the foster father of God’s Son.  

Joseph never ceased to live righteously, and it awed him to look on his Lord growing up in his home and to know that Almighty God wanted him to be there with him.

December 20 in the Third Week of Advent, 2025

Luke 1, 26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”   But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

All the essential doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary are found in these verses of the Gospel of St. Luke: her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, and her divine motherhood.  From these flow all that we understand about her, as her Assumption is the logical consequence of her Immaculate Conception.

“Hail, full of grace!”  The traditional translation follows the Vulgate translation of the Greek, which is oddly insufficient.  The Latin rendering was not that of Jerome, who corrected but did not create the much earlier Old Latin translation.  At any rate, the Greek participle the Latin translates means, rather, “You who have been graced [from the beginning]”.  The Greek perfect passive participle gives the meaning of an action completed in the past which has an effect in the present.  The Virgin Mary was perfected in grace at the beginning of her life, at the instant of her conception.  “Grace”, of course, is the divine life which God shares with us.  To be completed by grace means to be filled with God’s life, to be most holy.  This means that she was born without the effects of original sin and possessed in inner harmony of her emotions, intellect, and will that we cannot imagine.  We would be as the blind and her as the only one who could see, by comparison.

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin.”  This tells us that Mary was a Virgin at the time that she became with child by the Holy Spirit.  We might expect this since the translation also tells us that she was “betrothed” but not yet living with Joseph, but legally she was married to him and need not have been.  The information Luke gives us here is crucial to our understanding what to do with her statement, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” The verb tense is present, and in the Greek language, this means the present progressive: “since I am having no relations with man [ever].”  She intended, at the time of Gabriel’s visit, to maintain the virginity she had possessed from birth.  The fact that she intended to remain a Virgin even after marriage — in sharp contradiction to human custom — is also shown by her not accepting that the Child would be born in the normal course of her life with Joseph.  Her question to Gabriel makes sense only if she has no intention of forsaking her virginity.

As to the manner of the Child’s conception: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”  The Greek actually says that the Holy Spirit would “approach” her and the power of the Most High would “envelop” her, as in an embrace.  The conception will be of a miraculous nature, with God himself as the Father of this Child.  Gabriel adds, “Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”  This is a Hebrew idiom meaning, “He will be the Son of God.”  “To be called something” is “to be that thing”.  This is a very different understanding than that which we have in the West, just as a person’s name is their character or identity, along with their ancestry.  Thus, the significance of the name the Child will have: “You shall name him Jesus.”  That is, God saves.  Clearly, this demonstrates that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God, for the Son of God has no human Father, and so must be fully divine, taking his flesh from his human Mother.  And that Mary truly is his Mother and not merely a vessel through which the Son of God passed (which was an early heresy), the angel tells her that she is to name the Child — an action only the true mother could perform, with her husband, the child’s father.

All three of these teachings about Mary fly in the face of human experience, let alone the Jewish culture of her time.  They burst through human expectations and the limitations of the natural world, for “nothing will be impossible for God”.  You and I, poor frail mortals, are granted by the mercy of Almighty God the destiny of standing with the angelic hosts in heaven for all eternity beholding him.  This can be ours if we imitate what we can of the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, profit by her intercession, and believe with all our hearts that God can do this for us.

December 19 in the Third Week of Advent, 2025

Luke 1, 5-25

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years. Once when he was serving as priest in his division’s turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”  Then Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel said to him in reply, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.” Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute. Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home. After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months, saying, “So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.”

As we draw near to the Feast of Jesus’s Nativity, the Holy Church speaks to us of the Lord’s Precursor, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus through his preaching and his severe and distinctive manner of life.  Preaching penance, he practiced it as well, though he was certainly in less need of this than the people who came to him to be plunged into the Jordan as a sign of their own contrition for sin.  We might wonder, as we consider this: how should we live penitential lives with our load of sins when this holy man lived as he did?  

Luke tells us of John’s parents, the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth: “Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child.”  This verse sums up the situation for the Jews under the old law.  Obeying the law did not obtain a child, that is, grace, for them — grace, the life of God which sanctifies us and unites us to him.  They did all they were commanded to do, and yet they lay under the curse of childlessness, signifying original sin.  This afflicted them particularly because Zechariah and Elizabeth were descended from Aaron, the first priest of the covenant.  If anyone should have been blessed with children, it was this couple.  “Both were advanced in years”: the Chosen People had long awaited a Redeemer.  Kings had reigned and died, prophets had been raised up and died, and the people could still lament, “Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it has already gone before in the ages that were before us” (Ecclesiastes 1, 10).  

But then one day, Zechariah was chosen to offer incense within the Temple, and “the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense”.  The altar of incense was located in an inner chamber of the Temple, adjacent to, but separate from, the holy of holies, where only the high priest could go, and that only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, when coals and incense from the altar of incense were brought there.  The chamber of the altar of incense signifies John the Baptist because it leads to the holy of holies, which signifies the Lord Jesus because it is the place where the high priest would pray for mercy for the people in the presence of God.  The angel Gabriel is said to appear at the right of this altar.  St. Ambrose points out that Luke does not say that God sent Gabriel from heaven to Zechariah, but that Gabriel simply “appeared” to him, as though he had been there all along, but was invisible.  The angel appears at the “right” side of the altar: if the altar represents God, then the angel shows himself as acting and speaking for God with power.

“Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.”  The Virgin Mary was confused by what the angel called her (“perfected with grace”), but Zechariah is troubled by the very sight of him.  Of the two, the old priest and the young virgin, we would expect the first to be most prepared to see an angel.  The fact that it was Mary who was more prepared and composed tells us much about her.  The Fathers agree that the angel must have appeared in human form in order to communicate with Zechariah, but Gabriel must also have shown his angelic nature in some way.  Gabriel tells the priest, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.”  This leads us to think that at the time Zechariah was ministering in the chamber, he was, even in his old age, praying for a child.  This signifies the perseverance of the Jews in the Old Law despite its inability to bestow grace on them.  Gabriel says of the child God will give Zechariah and his wife: “He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.”  The injunction against the drinking of wine or strong drink sets their son apart from the rest of the people as a visible sign of their need to set themselves apart from the world by doing penance.  The prophesy that the child would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb is made in view of what will happen to him when Mary, pregnant with the Son of God, comes to him and his mother.  “He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.”  The fact that Luke quotes Gabriel as speaking of Elijah is notable because Luke is writing for Gentile Christians for whom the fulfillment of Malachi 4, 5-6 was not important.  It is a sign of the veracity of Luke’s account.  “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”  In understanding what Zechariah means when he asks how he is to “know” this, we ought to understand that the Virgin Mary uses this word when she says to Gabriel, “How will this be, since I do not know man” (Luke 1, 34).  That is, Zechariah is not asking how he will know that this will happen, but how he is to conceive a child with his wife “in her old age” (Luke 1, 36).  This reveals that he has doubts not simply as to their physical ability to do this but even that God could render them capable of it.  This is the reason for Gabriel’s stern reply: “You will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”  Here, we see the sign of the faltering in faith of Israel’s priesthood which will cause the son of Zechariah and our Lord so much hardship.  In some Greek texts Gabriel says that Zechariah would be deaf as well as dumb, conditions which often go together.  That would seem to be the case here, since it is later regarded as miraculous that he understood the question surrounding his son’s name and wrote it on a tablet.

“He was unable to speak to them . . . he was gesturing to them but remained mute.”  The priest came out of the sanctuary unable to tell the people the message from God that he had received.  The priesthood of the old law becomes silent so that the “voice of one crying out in the wilderness” might be heard.

“His wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months.”  Elizabeth withdrew from the world just as it had seemed that God had withdrawn from her life from the time she was married.  Her seclusion was broken only by the arrival of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The reason Elizabeth gives for secluding herself might be put into smoother English: “Thus did the Lord do hide from me before he removed my reproach from before others.”

As the Lord prepared the world by the actions indicated in all the signs in this reading, so he prepares us for his Second Coming.  He reveals to us that the ever-shifting laws and beliefs of this world cannot give us happiness.  He gives us signs that the priests of this world — the advertisers, politicians, movie stars, and proponents of bad science — cannot save us.  We Christians must run from these into a place of seclusion, into the wilderness, where we can repent, do penance, and await our God.

December 17, Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent

Matthew 1:1-17

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile. After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.  Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Christ, fourteen generations.

During the final seven days before Christmas, beginning on December 17, the Mass prayers and readings focus even more on the truth of the Son of God’s Incarnation and Birth. It is a sort of Holy Week, like that prior to Easter Sunday, as the Church prepares to celebrate the Lord’s Nativity in Bethlehem. We ought to intensify our own preparations, particularly in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but in all penitential and charitable works.

Now,pertaining to the Gospel Reading, for the ancient Jews, a person’s genealogy was a most precious possession.  Its importance surpassed that of the modern driver’s license or passport.  For a Jew at the time of Jesus, genealogy told a person or the world who somebody was: ethnicity, family of origin, and place of origin.  Beyond this, genealogy told what kind of a person somebody was.  Your forebear’s character indicated whether you were honest or a thief, brave or cowardly, generous or greedy.  Altogether, a person’s genealogy explained that person’s meaning.

St. Matthew presents the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth in order to show his meaning, and in order to show that he was born exactly when he should have been and of exactly the right family.  Later, he will show that Jesus was born in exactly the right place.  He does the latter quite convincingly by showing that the scribes themselves knew it was the right place.  In other words, his genealogy, especially when combined with the prophecies, prove that he was the One who is to come, as John the Baptist referred to him on one occasion.  For those who might wonder, knowing one’s genealogy all the way back to the Patriarchs could be compared to modern persons knowing their social security number.  In the days when the Jews returned from the Babylonian Captivity, a few hundred years before the Birth of Christ, the heads of families had to be able to recite their genealogies back to Jacob in order to demonstrate that they were indeed Jews and to which tribe and clan they belonged.  This allowed them to fit into society and to recover their ancestral property.  

Matthew’s  meticulous recounting of the Lord’s genealogy also made it clear that he, as author of this Gospel, would meticulously narrate the principal events of his life and his teachings.  He, as author, could be trusted to relate and not to invent.  In this way, the genealogy acts as the Evangelist’s preface, or statement of purpose.  St. Luke does something like this in his introduction to his own Gospel when he says that he has looked at many accounts and talked to many witnesses in order to learn the full truth about the life of Christ.

As Christians, the Gospels are our genealogy.  They tell people our meaning, who we are, and what their expectations of us can be.  They tell people that we come from Jesus, formed by his teachings and enlivened by his grace.  They tell people that we live in hope, that we hold to our faith, and that we act in love.  They tell others that as Christ lived, so we strive to live: for the children resemble their parents.  

Tuesday in the Third Week of Advent, December 16, 2025

Matthew 21, 28-32

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”

(Sunday night I mistakingly posted a reflection I had written thinking that the next day was Tuesday. I realized my mistake Monday morning and wrote and posted one for the correct day’s Gospel Reading. Rather than post again the reflection I had originally posted I have written a completely new one, which I am posting Monday evening. I’m sorry for the confusion. The days go so fast!)

This parable is unsettling precisely because it refuses to flatter anyone who hears it. Jesus tells it not to sinners on the margins, but to chief priests and elders—to those who know the law, speak the right words, and inhabit positions of religious authority. And he begins disarmingly: “What is your opinion?” He draws them into judgment before revealing that they themselves stand under it.

The first son says what many of us secretly feel: “I will not.” His refusal is blunt, even rude. It lacks polish and piety. But it has one saving feature — it is honest. There is no performance here, no religious varnish. And because it is honest, it can be repented of. Something happens afterward. The son changes his mind. The Greek suggests a real interior reversal, not mere regret but a turning of intention. He goes. He does the will of his father.

The second son is very different. He says all the right things. “Yes, sir.” The words are respectful, even devout. From the outside, he looks like the obedient one. But nothing follows. His obedience exists only in speech. His “yes” is a substitute for action, and once spoken, it seems to satisfy him. There is no change, no movement, no vineyard dust on his hands.

Jesus’ question is simple: Which one did the father’s will? The answer is obvious—and the leaders answer correctly. But in answering, they condemn themselves. For they are the second son.

This is where the parable becomes sharp. Jesus does not accuse them of open rebellion, but of something more dangerous: religious inertia. They say “yes” to God in principle. They assent to righteousness in theory. They speak fluently about obedience. But when the call comes in a concrete form — when John the Baptist appears, calling for repentance—they do not move. They do not change their minds. They do not go.

And then comes the truly scandalous line: “Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you.” Not because their sins are smaller — they are not — but because they believed John. They recognized the truth when it confronted them. Their lives were visibly disordered, but their hearts were still capable of turning. They did not confuse words with obedience. When repentance was offered, they took it.

Jesus adds something even more damning: “Even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.” In other words, the leaders were not merely ignorant; they were resistant to evidence of grace. They saw sinners repent. They saw lives change. And still they did not reconsider themselves. They did not allow grace in others to unsettle their self-understanding.

This parable warns us that the most dangerous spiritual state is not outright refusal, but unexamined religious commitment. That is, a spoken “yes” can become a shield against conversion. Familiarity with God can harden into immunity to him. It is possible to say “Lord, Lord” and never enter the vineyard.

At the same time, the parable is full of hope. The first son reminds us that a bad beginning does not doom the end. What matters is not what we once said, but whether we are willing to change when the truth confronts us. God’s will is not fulfilled by correct language, but by lived response.

The Kingdom of God is entered not by those who speak best about obedience, but by those who, sooner or later, get up and go. And sometimes it is those who begin furthest away who arrive first — because they know they must move.

The question Jesus leaves with us is the same one he asked the leaders, though now it is quieter and closer: Which son are you and I becoming — by what we say, or by what we do?

Monday in the Third Week of Advent, December 15, 2025

Matthew 21, 23-27

When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The Lord Jesus, having entered Jerusalem with a large crowd of supporters, went directly to the Temple as though to take possession of it.  When he found the usual sellers of animals and money changers in the courtyard, he violently threw them out.  These two actions — his entrance to the city and his suppression of trade in the Temple — alarmed the chief priests and the elders.  They saw that he was challenging their legitimacy and so they accosted him: “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”  As if to say, We did not authorize you to do this.  However, they themselves possessed no authority.  The chief priests were not the descendants of Aaron, as the Law stated they must be.  Annas had been appointed by the Roman procurator when Jesus was just a boy, and he was later deposed.  A few years later, his son-in-law Caiphas was appointed as high priest.  In fact, several men were appointed as high priest and then were deposed by the Romans during this time.  Their authority, such as it was, came not from their office so much as from the Romans.  As for the elders, these were older men who simply assumed a role.  They possessed no authority at all.  These priests and elders have no foundation for demanding that Jesus tell them on what authority he acts.

As though to signify that they have no basis for making demands of him, he does not answer their question, but makes them an offer: “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Clearly, the authority here is Jesus, and the priests and elders acknowledge this by agreeing to his terms.  It is interesting to speculate as to what sort of question they thought he would ask them.  Certainly a theological one, and one they thought they could answer with some vague allusion to the Scriptures.  They were not ready for the question he did ask them: “Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”  The men of no legitimate authority are trapped and they know it.  Quite apart from answering honestly, though, they try to figure out an answer using their cunning.  Their lives might depend on it: “They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.”  With only the appearance of importance and power to back them up, people are concerned with their personal survival and nothing else.  The question the Lord asks is a reasonable one and one which deserved an answer.  But these men were not eager to give one.  The facade of their authority came crashing down if they answered that John’s authority came from God; and the crowd would tear them apart if they responded that it was merely of human origin.  The reply they finally give amounts to a surrender: “We do not know.”  But of all people, they were supposed to know.  And how could the crowd know if they did not?  Their answer confused the crowd so much that they were able to slither away safely.  “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Jesus reaffirms that he owes them nothing.  

The meaning of his coming to the Temple and taking possession of it was to show that the old priesthood — the line of Aaron — had come to an end.  The animals, which were to be sacrificed, were set free, signifying that the sacrifices of the Old Law had come to an end.  Now had arrived the true high priest, restoring not the compromised line of Aaron, but the original line of Melchizedek, and he himself was the new Sacrifice.  When Jesus defeats the priests and elders in this reading, he shows them that a new age was dawning.