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Message from the desk of the Pastor:

THE TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Gospel Reading 

Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus poses a question to the chief priests and elders

on the meaning of obedience.

Background on the Gospel Reading

The context for today’s Gospel is the mounting tension between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus has entered Jerusalem and overturned the money changers’ tables in the Temple. Jesus has caught the attention of the religious authorities; the chief priests and elders question Jesus about the source of his authority. Jesus refuses to name for these religious leaders the source of his authority. Instead, he questions the priests and elders through the parable we        hear in today’s Gospel. The answer given by the religious leaders is correct, but            it convicts them for their failure to heed the call of John the Baptist and for their inability to recognize the Kingdom of God.

The situation Jesus poses is rather straightforward. Given the same task by their father, one son asserts his disobedience in words, but then obeys in his actions;      the second son obeys with his words, but disobeys in his actions. The question      that Jesus poses is pointed and direct: Which son did what the father wanted?          All would agree that “actions speak louder than words” and that even if his words were disobedient, the son who did the work as ordered did the father’s will.

Jesus’ conclusion is also direct. The chief priests and elders, the ones who          speak most often about God, did not act accordingly. They did not respond to          the message of repentance announced by John the Baptist with a change of        heart. Instead, John’s message was heeded by those one would not expect to    repent—tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. Because of their actions,    these sinners will enter the Kingdom of God ahead of the religious leaders.

Jesus could ask us the same question. Do our words indicate our obedience to    God? If not our words, do our actions? God desires a full conversion of heart, that    our actions (and our words as well) will give evidence of our love for God.

Family Connection

The example Jesus poses in today’s Gospel could have been taken directly from family experience. Each of us can recall instances in which family members spoke one thing but then did another. The point of Jesus’ story is to show that our actions speak louder than words, even with God.

As you gather as a family, talk about times when a family member said one thing    and then did another. Acknowledge that sometimes the action taken displays a      true change of heart. Then read today’s Gospel, Matthew 21:28-32. Observe that Jesus faulted the religious leaders for not allowing John the Baptist’s message of repentance to change their hearts and actions. The word we sometimes use for      this change of heart is conversion. Jesus wants us to do more than pay lip service    to the Gospel; he wants us to be transformed by his word.

Pray together that your family will experience a conversion to God and show  evidence of this in both actions and words. Pray together today’s second reading, Philippians 2:1-5.