When Our Yes Becomes Nothing

I once heard a successful entrepreneur say something that stayed with me. We are always encouraged to dream big. But dreaming cannot be the end. If we never take the first step, a dream remains just that. A dream.

It made me wonder whether the same is true of our faith.

“I’ll pray for you,” we tell someone who is struggling. We mean it. Then life gets busy, and we forget.

A parent tells a child, “We’ll play later.” You meant that too. But later comes, you are tired, and eventually the child stops asking.

We meant every yes.

But our yes never became anything.

I wonder how many times I have done the same with God.

In today’s Gospel, a father asks his two sons to work in his vineyard. The first says no, but later changes his mind and goes. The second says, “Yes, sir,” but never goes.

Jesus asks which one did the father’s will.

The answer is obvious. Until I realise that I may be the second son.

I come to Mass. I pray the Rosary. I hear His Word. I receive Him in the Eucharist.

And sometimes nothing changes.

I still hold the grudge. I still refuse to forgive. I still judge. I still postpone what I know God has been asking of me.

Scripture warns us: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.”

Perhaps the frightening possibility is that we can hear God so often that His Word no longer disturbs us.

Pope Francis often urged us to read the Gospel every day, but he also reminded us that the Word must move “from the book to life.”

We hear “forgive,” but keep the wound alive. We hear “love your neighbour,” but decide who deserves our love.

The Word reaches our ears.

But has it reached our lives?

Still, there is hope.

The first son said no. But his no was not the end of his story.

He changed his mind. He turned around. He went.

Maybe today the question is simply:

What must change in me because I have heard the Word of God?

The Father was not looking for the son who gave Him the most beautiful answer.

He was looking for the son whose heart changed.

And who went. (BV)