Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5:37

Which would you prefer? A person who says yes when the outcome is no or a person who says no when the outcome is yes? The second response is more genuine, because the person who does the right thing even when it hurts is more to be admired than the person who merely gives lip service but has no intention of doing the right thing.

In the gospel of Matthew, chapter 21:28-31, Jesus tells the parable of the two sons. One son agreed to do his father’s will but didn’t; the other disagreed with His Father, but did what he was told. The Lord praised the second son for his honesty. He did not give lip-service like the first son. He did the right thing even when it hurt.

Actions speak louder than words, and the Lord commends honest action over good intentions. “It is not the person who says ‘Lord, Lord….who will enter the kingdom of God, but rather the person who hears the word of God and keeps it,” says Jesus in Matthew 7:21.

Rhetorical slogans about our faith are not good enough. We must be willing to deliver on the promises of our faith. It is not good enough to say yes on your wedding day. You must say yes to the demands of love in marriage every day. It is easy for a parent to say yes at the baptism of a child but it takes true courage to say yes to all the things a parent should do for the child during the years of a child’s upbringing. It is easy to say “yes, I am a Christian,” but it is another thing to live it.

Saying ‘yes’ is what the gospel of Jesus is all about. This positive response to the demands of God’s word leads to conversion as in the case of the second son in Matthew 21:28-31 who did the right thing even when he felt like doing the opposite. Conversion means change that makes the doing of God’s will our way of life; it means saying ‘yes’ when ‘yes’ means ‘yes.’

We must be willing to say without reservation, “yes, Lord, not my way but yours!”

Fr. Hugh Duffy