This week’s Clergy Corner
taken from the September 27th Bulletin:
The Clergy Corner as taken from the 9/27/26 bulletin:
Jesus tells us a story of a man who had two sons who responded to their father’ s invitation. The younger son represents the tax collectors and prostitutes whose lives have been a “NO” to God, but now repent and enter the Kingdom God. The elder son represents the Jewish leaders who professed to be religious, but who did not respond to God’s call to repentance.
It is good that we always examine the operation of our personal freedom. Human Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. We are free human beings because God in creating us has given us the power of the intellect to know what is good and the ability to choose what is good. The choices we make form us as human beings.
We have the ability to say “yes” to God and and can also make a decision to say “no” to God. We can make a decision to repent and change the direction of our lives. One way or another we are responsible to our conduct and accountable for our behavior. The good news is that with the help of God’s grace, we can change the direction of our lives for the better.
In this journey of faith, we can say that the “yes” and “no” are being intertwined in the manner we respond to God’s call to fulfill His will. We always encounter the existence of these two opposing realities. Sometimes we say Yes to Him, and sometimes we say No. But our main objective is to be always in the state of grace. Our fidelity to Christ is our salvation.
Are we faithful to our “Yes” to God? Sometimes we are tempted to say NO to God’s will. It happens when God is asking us to keep faithfully the Ten Commandments, to live out the Eight Beatitudes, to practice the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy, to carry our personal crosses, to defend the sanctity of human life, to maintain the sacredness of marriage, to come to church every Sunday, and etc. Why? Deep within us there is a tendency for us to sin, to struggle against God, so that even with the best of intentions, we sometimes sin. Why? because of the weakness of human nature harmed by original sin, we are inclined to abuse our freedom. When we abuse our freedom, we sin.
The parable gives us hope. There is always hope that we can repent of our ways and start all over again. There is always hope that we can turn away from our mistakes in the past and turn to the Lord by taking on a new agenda for action. The love of Christ forgives, heals, renews, and strengthens. The grace of Christ is stronger than our weakness or sinfulness. “My grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection.” (2 Cor 12:9).
– Fr. Cosme