Call to Conversion

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Call to Conversion

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Since the year of the Eucharist is coming to a close, it is worth focusing on liturgy this week. There are those who believe that the liturgy should focus only on purely spiritual matters, avoiding any contamination with issues of politics or economics or daily life. Others feel that the liturgy should always be uplifting, making them feel better about themselves and their lives than when they entered the church building. Such attitudes reduce liturgy to largely empty ritual. Liturgy aims to bring us into the presence of the living God and to confront us with the power of God’s word. It is intended to foster conversion of attitudes and behaviour. It seeks the transformation of the assembled body of Christ just as surely as it seeks the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord.
This means that authentic liturgy will regularly challenge the members of the assembly. The word of God both consoles and confronts, and the liturgy does the same. It is all too easy to tame the liturgy so that it never disturbs the assembly. Liturgy can become conventional rather than prophetic. It can easily be an exercise of saying “yes” to God but not doing God’s will, like the son in today’s Gospel parable (Mt 21:28-32).
When Jesus first shared this parable, he did so within the context of a controversy with the chief priests and elders (v. 28). These had assumed that their righteousness had earned them entrance into God’s kingdom. These had also assumed that the sinfulness of the tax collectors and prostitutes of their day had sealed their fate as kingdom-outsiders. They had, in all of their assuming overlooked the possibility of grace to turn around lives and situations that seemed hopeless.
Nevertheless, Jesus brought the chief priests and elders to the point where they had to admit that the son who first said no and then changed his mind and heart was the one who did what his father wanted. This admission left them to deal with the fact that those whom they despised as beyond the pale of salvation would be granted a share in God’s kingdom.
Today, this parable remains a source of comfort and encouragement for sinners, prompting us to grasp the grace that allows us to say yes to God. By the same token, it remains a source of challenge to us sinners, warning us against that undue self-righteousness that overlooks the need for grace in all we are, in all we do, in all we choose, in all we think, in all we say.