Kenosis and Doing the Will of the Father
(Ezekiel 18:25-28; Psalm 25; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32)
A young, newly ordained missionary priest, full of energy and zeal and eager to begin ministry, was assigned to a small parish. Being by nature a “Mr. Fix-it’”, he got very involved from the start, using every idea he could think of to try and solve everyone’s problems. He started a youth group, got involved in the movement of Alcoholics Anonymous, started giving a leadership course and started a parish council and a lady’s group. As if that were not enough, he also got involved in Marriage Encounter and Engaged Encounter as a team priest. As well, he began to develop two catechetical programs, one at an elementary school level and one at a high school level. On top of that, he began to lecture at a rehabilitation center and give workshops in other communities.
By the end of his first year, however, he was tired, tense, restless, and basically unhappy. Nothing seemed to be changing. Someone came up to him and told him that he had been there a year already and nothing had changed. That burned him to the core. Then one day, through a small booklet he read that mentioned that Christianity was not easy nor hard – it was impossible, he suddenly came to his senses. He was trying to do the impossible on his own power. He was actually doing not God’s will, but his own will in God’s name. Realizing his error and deeply sorry for his mistaken zeal, he knelt down and prayed, “Dear God, these are your people, not mine to change. This is your church, not mine to run. I give them all back to you and surrender my will to yours.” Immediately, he felt an immense burden lifted off his shoulders, changed his pace of life as well as approach to ministry, and things in the parish really did start to change, because he had changed.
This true story puts into contemporary terms what Jesus is teaching us in the parable that he recounts in the Gospel and what Ezekiel echoes in the first reading – we are to empty ourselves and do the will of the Father.
In that first reading from Ezekiel, God was addressing the religious leaders of Ezekiel’s day, i.e., the House of Israel. They were not being faithful to the covenant and to the way of the Lord. Like the young priest above, they had strayed away from doing God’s will and were doing their own will in the name of religion and to benefit their own selfish purposes. God, through Ezekiel, speaks words to them that are all about repentance. The righteous, meaning precisely those religious leaders, who turn away from being faithful to the covenant and the way of doing good, shall die. On the other hand, sinners who repent, who turn away from their evil ways and do what is right, shall live.
It is obvious that the liturgists chose this reading from the Old Testament to serve as a backdrop for the story Jesus would tell in today’s Gospel. Jesus is addressing the chief priests and the elders, the religious leaders of his time, who just like their ancestors, were doing their will in the name of God, instead of doing God’s will.
The first son in the parable who said “no” underwent a conversion, a change of mind and heart, and did the Father’s will. Similarly, Jesus stated that the tax collectors and prostitutes believed John because they repented, were converted, and changed their ways. Jesus could say this because John was preaching a baptism of repentance and the people were flocking to him in a spirit of conversion.
The religious leaders also came, not out of repentance, conversion or belief, but out of stubborn self-will, to question John, to check him out and to accuse. Again, just like their ancestors, the “House of Israel’”, they did not repent or believe John, nor did they repent and believe in Jesus.
By contrast, St. Paul, in the memorable passage from Philippians, is describing the ideal disciple, and what doing the will of God looks like. We are to be humble, of one mind and heart, and caring for each other. He then presents Jesus as the perfect model, who out of humble obedience, did not cling to the glory he shared with the Father, but emptied himself and did the will of the Father, which was to show God’s unconditional love for us on the Cross.
The tendency to fall into the trap of doing our own will in the name of God is very subtle and powerful. There are many who fall for that trap, and end up burning out and needing to go for treatment. There is a serious call in these readings to for us to repent if we are heading into that trap. We can check our attitudes, let go of any stubborn self-will, and humbly and obediently, like Jesus, learn to do the will of God.
Step Eleven of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous describes this attitude very well: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, seeking only the knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.” In many ways, that is a concise summary of the teaching of the readings for today.
The Eucharist that we celebrate now is a humble celebration of doing God’s will, repenting of those times when we did our own will in God’s name, listening attentively to the Word of God, and then receiving the very Body and Blood of the one who emptied himself out of humble obedience to the point of giving his life for us on the Cross.
For that, as the hymn from Philippians says, God raised him up and gave him the name above all others, so that all of creation might bow down and worship Jesus as Lord.
May our celebration today empower us to empty ourselves of all selfish ambition, to repent, to let go of stubborn self-will, do the Will of God in our lives, and worship Jesus as Lord.
