The Power of Conversion. Pt. III

Matthew 21: 28-32
 
 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.' 

I made my Cursillo and worked on several Cursillo weekends back in the early 80's and I still remember one simple group prayer that always struck me. It was prayed quite often throughout the weekend.

“We pray for those who need this Cursillo the most and for those who think they need it the least.”

Jesus' parable of the two sons seems self-evident. Of course it was the son who actually made it out to the vineyard who did his Father's will. That seems so obvious. Jesus compares tax collectors and prostitutes to the son who changed his mind and went to the vineyard after all which leaves the scribes and pharisees being uncomfortably represented by the son who confessed willingness but didn't carry through on his commitment. I'm not sure Jesus' audience even understood what he was getting at. As busy religious leaders, they would have seen themselves as very task oriented for God, laboring daily in his vineyard. They would not have found it easy to grasp that Jesus wasn't really talking about working for God. He was talking about having enough humility to know they were as much in need of conversion as the tax collectors and prostitutes.

In other words, they needed to realize that religious busyness does not necessarily mean that one has experienced conversion. John preached repentance as the crucial starting point of the Kingdom journey and when anyone asked him about the practicalities of repentance he was simple and to the point. ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none and whoever has food must do likewise. Collect no more money than the amount owed you. Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ Scribes and Pharisees listened to John's exhortations but felt no need to change how they were doing anything or be 'altogether turned around'. That was for other people.

That got me thinking. How easy is it to miss our own need for conversion? What kind of mindset did the first son have that made him think it was all right to say yes in principle but not carry through in action? Was he lazy, devious and dishonest - or did he simply hear the request and decide that he was too busy with all the other things he was doing on behalf of his Father?

What about the second son? Was he uncaring and irresponsible? Did he resent his Father's request but eventually give in to it out of guilt? Or was he, too, very busy doing what he thought the Father required? Did he immediately refuse to go to the vineyard because he was already up to his ears in taking care of what he thought was his Father's business? He may have been heavily involved in tasks he assumed were important to his Father and those tasks had become his kingdom of operation, a kingdom where he was the boss and much depended on him being on top of things and remaining in control. How could Dad ask him to work in the vineyard like a common laborer when he had all these other important tasks to do?

Perhaps what the second son became aware of was that his Father had never actually asked him to take care of all the stuff that he felt was requiring his immediate attention. Perhaps he suddenly realized that going to work in the vineyard was actually the only thing his Father had directly asked him to do in quite awhile. Maybe he intuited that it was not so much a request as an invitation and began to grasp something that turned his whole attitude around: being busy on behalf of his Father was not the same as being in relationship with his Father and learning first hand what was really important to his Father's heart.

The only thing that could have changed the son's mind and heart and given him clear insight was a conversion experience. He needed a revelation to make him understand that it was time to find out what his Father thought was important and stop being so sure that his agenda was his Father's agenda.

That was the attitude Jesus was railing against. The scribes and Pharisees were so certain that they knew God's agenda. They were very busy men and they had their little kingdoms to look after. John preached a very simple message: “Be honest. Act with integrity toward your neighbor. Be lovingly generous with what you have. Don't bully people.” This message was far too simple for these very busy and self-important people. They probably listened and thought, “Yeah, yeah, yeah...whatever. That's a message for a sinner, not for a good religious person like me. I know all that.”

“I know all that.” Dangerous words. They're dangerous because they block us from what we don't know. At any point in our Christian journey, admitting that we know very little is a freeing truth. It is a very humble but awesome prayer to say, “Please, Lord. Teach me what I don't know.” It reminds the innermost being that we know so little. It helps the heart recall that the adventure of this life is not to know but to learn and that no matter what we have learned or how much we have perceived, there is always far more to discover.

Now, before I find our parish priest at my door with a shotgun, I want to impress upon you that I am not advocating that everyone should up and quit their parish ministries and stop serving in order to navel-gaze and meditate on, “What don't I know?” What I am saying is we must not assume that we don't need conversion simply because we're busy. Sometimes busyness masks the deeper needs of our hearts.

The vineyard in Jesus' parable didn't just represent the world our priests send us out into at the end of Mass. The vineyard is also the heart of the Father and, like the 'Back to the Land' movement of the 60's and 70's, heading into God's vineyard is often accompanied by a great desire for a return to simplicity. When he asks us to open ourselves to conversion, he is saying, “Come home to the vineyard of my heart. Come and see where I live. Discover your daily tasks in the center of my creative love. See with my eyes, hear with my ears, let my hands guide yours as you work with me in the soil I have prepared for you. Don't make your home within your assumptions of who I am and what I want because your assumptions limit your understanding and are misleading. They can never encompass the glorious universe of my ways and my thoughts. In my vineyard, the small becomes large, the first becomes the last, the least becomes the most and every day I set up a feasting table under the Tree of Life. Come back to my heart. Come back to simplicity of a natural spiritual life. Come home.”

Conversion: the act of turning around and being taken back to the land, back to the vineyard of the Father's heart.