- 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St Vincent de PaulReadings: Ezekiel 18:25–28; Psalm 24(25): 4–9; Philippians 2:1–11; Matthew 21:28–32
Today’s readings reveal a beautiful truth: God places no conditions on His love for us, but His unconditional love continually calls us to conversion so that we can experience it more fully. Through Ezekiel, the Lord invites the sinner to renounce sin and choose life, not because God withdraws His love when we fail, but because sin can make our hearts incapable of recognizing and receiving the love that is already being offered. That is why the Psalm asks us to remember the Lord’s compassion and mercy: conversion begins not with fear of a God who rejects us, but with the memory of a God who has always been merciful. Saint Paul then takes us to the deepest revelation of this love: Christ “emptied himself,” humbled Himself, became a servant, and accepted even death on a Cross. God does not remain distant waiting for us to become worthy of His love; He comes down to where we are so that we may discover how deeply we are loved. This is also the heart of Jesus’ parable. The son who initially says “No” is not rejected; he can change his mind and go to the vineyard. Even tax collectors and prostitutes, whose lives seemed far from God, discover that the door remains open when they turn toward Him. Saint Vincent de Paul understood this love and made it visible by going toward the poor, the forgotten, and the suffering. The message of Christ is therefore one of immense hope: we do not change in order to make God love us; we change because His love has reached us, and once we truly experience that love, we no longer want to remain as we were. Let’s reflect: Do I try to change because I am afraid of losing God’s love, or because I have discovered that He already loves me without conditions and I want my whole life to become a response to that love?
Don Giorgio