A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They answered, “The first.”
It is better for us to do good without hesitation, but sometimes we hesitate, complain, or put off doing the right thing. However, if in the end, we do the right thing in spite of our hesitation, complaints, or procrastination, then at least we have done God’s Will… albeit belatedly. Worse than being slow to do good is promising to do good and then not following through on our word. This can happen when we become distracted, choose sin purposefully, or otherwise avoid doing the right thing in favor of some lesser good. In these cases, we fail to do God’s Will and compound the problem by not following through on our stated intentions. Our words have meaning, but our actions hold more weight. We can pay lip service to God through our prayers, but without works to back those words up, our prayers are like clanging cymbals with no real meaning.
Do our words and prayers mean something? What can we do to give our words true meaning? What actions can we take to make our faith manifest?
O Lord, let us go out into the vineyard and work without delay and without distraction.
Amen.
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