Emptying Obedience

“And keep that in mind as you're moving through your day and you're making moral choice after moral choice, you're affecting your world, you're also defining the person you are becoming”

“As long as our focus remains on ourselves, we cannot preach the gospel, because our words ring empty”

“For us sinners the game is always filling up, right? 'I got this empty, you know, cage that I got to fill up with the goods of the world.' That's why I'm not happy...but the weird truth of the very heart of our faith is that God is not about filling up but emptying out.”

“Humiliation in the extreme, that's how low the Son of God went, friends, in order to find us. There's Christianity.”

“It's not taking that matters, it's giving away”

“everyone who comes into the world comes into the world for God's purposes, to find his or her vocation and destiny in Christ”

“The point is that the life of virtue is not about committing more good deeds than sins, so that they can be totted up and balanced against each other at the end...What matters who one is becoming rather than just what one did.”

“Today’s Gospel presents to us two sons who are imperfect and tells us that we are one of them. It is only when we own our imperfection and open ourselves to learn from the gifts of others that we can personally and communally do the will of our Father.”

“The seed that was planted needed time to grow. And therein is the awesome beauty of his kingdom, of his grace in our lives, and of a God who will address us tenderly as his children and will wait for us.”

“Often we find ourselves saying no to God’s mercy, or perhaps just saying not just yet. In these times we need God’s help, and the help of the Church, to see the error of our ways.”

“It’s possible, then, to get distracted or misled on the way to God. It’s possible even to do the terrible thing of rejecting God and his love. We must never think, however, that it’s too late for repentance, in our own or in other’s cases.”

“They felt how they had to struggle to reach, and keep safe, their favoured status. They seem to have little or no understanding of the love in forgiveness. Perhaps love had just ceased to be, in the world they had made and maintained with regulations.”

“Do we claim to be devout, religious people, who are willing to obey God, while, in fact, refusing to do his will?”

“Words can never be a good substitute for deeds. We must constantly examine ourselves. We must try always to fulfil our promises and put our words into action.”

“The truth is, that when we are able to admit our faults, when we can own the mistakes that we have made, we are not submitting to defeat and failure. We are, instead, taking the first step toward healing and success.”

“One of the beautiful things about God is his enduring grace, forgiveness and love for us. God doesn't give up on us even when our backs are turned and we keep saying 'no.' God patiently waits for the 'yes', our 'yes' in whatever form that 'yes' takes.”

“Do I show mercy or do I stick to the rules? How does my decision affect the rest of the community? What ought to be the relationship between mercy and law? What is fair? How do I decide?”

“I don’t think of procrastination as disobedience. But, when I read this Gospel, I, like the Pharisees, am the first son who says yes to God when He puts something on my conscience, but my obedience does not always take priority over what my mind and will see as important.”

“we often fall into the temptation of thinking God’s punishment of our sins does not represent the idea of him being a merciful and loving Father”

“God’s vineyard needs our tender pruning and care. God’s people need our “Yes,” not our disregard or narrow-mindedness.”

“Don’t leave Mass thinking the Gospel wasn’t speaking about you”

“We know the answer. Every time. Every time the Holy Spirit is there, nudging us, and we know what the right thing is, but so many times we choose to do what feels better at the time, so satisfy that desire, that emotion that we are feeling, because we think it will make us feel good.”

“neither son in Jesus’ parable is a particularly good model for how we should respond to God’s invitation to work with him and for him for the building up of the Kingdom of Heaven: one son failed in word and the other in deed. Much better to model our behaviour on Jesus himself”

“This should be a bit of a warning to us, that it is ok to strive to overcome our mortal sins, but don’t become overly scrupulous over perfection”

“To understand the evil that we live in our world today, it is necessary to reflect on our present reality”

“One can and should stand before God, individually and assume spiritual responsibility. One ought not to hide behind or lose oneself in the collective.”

“God's power is precisely in his capacity to give himself away”