Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you

28 SEPTEMBER (Mt 21,28-32)

The Lord had always asked his people to abandon any false security. Justice and injustice are not perennial states of a man. The just can become unjust and the unjust can return to his justice. Ezekiel is the prophet of this truth. The Lord serves himself of him to enlighten his people perched in falsehood.

But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live? And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live? None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die (Ez 18,21-24).

St. Paul also gives divine clarity to this truth. He is just who observes the Law, not who belongs to a religion or a people.

All who sin outside the law will also perish without reference to it, and all who sin under the law will be judged in accordance with it. For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people’s hidden works through Christ Jesus. Now if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of God and know his will and are able to discern what is important since you are instructed from the law, and if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness, that you are a trainer of the foolish and teacher of the simple, because in the law you have the formulation of knowledge and truth –  then you who teach another, are you failing to teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast of the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, “Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles.” Circumcision, to be sure, has value if you observe the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Again, if an uncircumcised man keeps the precepts of the law, will he not be considered circumcised? Indeed, those who are physically uncircumcised but carry out the law will pass judgment on you, with your written law and circumcision, who break the law. One is not a Jew outwardly. True circumcision is not outward, in the flesh. Rather, one is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; his praise is not from human beings but from God (Rm 2,12-29).

Jesus proclaimed it with firmness and clarity of the Holy Spirit: the conversion is the door of the kingdom of justice and of truth. There is no salvation without true conversion.

“What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He 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.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdomof God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

Our yes salvation if it is transformed into labour, work, into obedience to every command received. A yes not lived does not bring into the kingdom, it makes us stay out. If instead it is fully lived, then we are truly God’s kingdom, we are it on earth and we will be it in eternity. However, if we are not it today, we will never be it tomorrow. We withdraw today and we will withdraw tomorrow. On the contrary, today everyone thinks that tomorrow he will be the eternal kingdom of God, even though he does not live today as a true kingdom of God. It is the general illusion.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us today true kingdom of God.