Day: October 1, 2023

October 1, 2023
St. Michael Catholic Church
Bedford, Texas

Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Philippians 2:1-11
Matthew 21:28-32

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with a parable about a father with two different sons. The first son rejects the father’s direction to go out and work in the vineyard, but then later proceeds to answer his father’s direction and does go to work in the vineyard. The father makes the same request of the second son who responds reverently that he will do as the father asks, but then proceeds not to do what he has said that he would do. Jesus asks the chief priests and elders which son did as the father requested. They respond that the first son did as the father requested. Jesus then makes his point by implicating the chief priests and elders as maintaining the same disobedience and false piety as the second son, while prostitutes and tax collectors display the obedience of the first son.