XXVI Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Ez 18:25-28
Ps 25
Phil 2:1-11
Mt 21:28-32

"Someone's Gettin' a Whuppin'"
(First Homily in St. Mary's Immaculate Conception - Brenham, TX)

I’d like to introduce myself again in case you’re wondering who I am. Nothing distracts a listener more than trying to figure out “Who is this guy?” and “Why is he preaching to us?” I am Deacon Reuben Chen and I am a seminarian studying for the Diocese of Dallas and am in seminary studies in Houston. But then you might be wondering why a Dallas deacon, studying in Houston, has come all the way out here to Brenham to do ministry. Well as you can plainly see I am not a small man… I came out here ‘cause I heard you had some ice cream. =)

Seriously though, I am here as part of the program for my final year in the seminary. The last year in our seminary studies is usually spent as an ordained deacon to serve in the local parishes about two weekends a month. Usually, the seminarians that come through here are from the Diocese of Austin. However, a special request was made for me to study under the tutelage and mentorship of Fr. Ivey to help me in pastoral ministry and to help me learn Chinese, as I was born and raised here in Texas. That being said, I have three of my favorite things all together here: ice cream, serving the people of the great state of Texas, and discovering my Chinese heritage. Like I mentioned earlier, I will be on assignment on average of two weekends a month through April or May. During my time here, I hope I may serve you well and learn much from all of you.


When I read the scriptures, I often find myself as one of the characters in the stories told. The Gospel today is no different. A man had two sons. In my family, there are two sons, my younger brother and I. Growing up, my parents would often tell me to go do this or do that. Between my brother and me, I was the disobedient one. I was a picky eater, I never ate my fruit and veggies. Funny how that all worked out… I would often argue with my Mom in the morning getting ready for school. I hated turtle necks and ties, and pretty much anything that went around my neck. Funny how that all worked out… God loves a bit of irony. My brother on the other hand, often being the good and obedient one, always said, “yes.” My brother is really intelligent and I like to brag on how smart he is, except when he isn’t. But usually with great intelligence comes a little bit of absent mindedness. So he would forget to do things or would do them all wrong and I would have to go after him and fix it.

I guess you could say that I was the first son in the Gospel. The one who says no, but changed his mind and went. And my brother, though well intentioned, would be the second son – the one who says yes, but doesn’t carry it out. However, I think Jesus might have left out some details to this little story, if my personal experience serves me correctly. Oh, I did eat those peas and carrots and I did eventually put on that turtle neck, but what changed my mind – or rather what caused me to change my mind? And what do you think happened to my brother when he didn’t do what he had agreed to do? I don’t think it matters if you’re the first son or the second son in this story; because in my life, if my brother or I didn’t do what my Dad told us to do, we were gonna get a whuppin’. And I don’t think it matters if you’re in a Chinese family or an American family – I think all parents are pretty much the same on this account – if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, you’re getting a whuppin’. The difference is when this “whuppin’” is going to take place.

But then we might say, “that’s not fair!” – why do both sons get punished? Like it is written in our first reading, The Lord’s way is not fair! But the Lord replies, Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When we sin, when we disobey, the natural consequence is punishment is it not? And yet, the crying child is angry at their parents because of the whuppin’ he got for unraveling five rolls of toilet paper and making boxing gloves to box his brother. (never happened to me, just made that up). Do bad things and bad things are usually to follow.

Even when we first refuse the Lord, fortunately, we can still “change our minds” and still repent of our sins. We can call upon the Lord as the responsorial psalm shows us how to pray: Remember your mercies, O Lord… teach me your paths and guide me in your truth…. Remember your compassion and your love are from of old. We can still carry out the Father’s will and live a life of virtue and love. But what about these “punishments from God”, these whuppins’? I would like to think of them not so much as “punishments from God” but rather a wakeup call, or “an offer we can’t refuse.” And it’s not like the things God wants us to do is outright bad, it’s just something we would rather not do. It would not kill me to put on a turtle neck, considering the weather outside was near freezing. As parents want good things for their children, so the Father desires the good for us – even if it means doing something we don’t like, something don’t want to do, or even something we don’t think we are able or worthy to do.

I know this might disappoint some of you, but my alma mater is the University of Texas at Austin. Yes, I am a Longhorn in shepherd’s clothing. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with a focus in telecommunications and networks. It might be a little puzzling on how I ended up standing here before you today. It’s a long story that perhaps I’ll tell some other day. But what ultimately set me on the path to the priesthood was that he called me to do his will. I asked what he wanted from me and he told me. I wished he had told me seven years and $50,000 earlier, but I would have probably said “no” then. I didn’t feel worthy then, I still don’t feel worthy now. But the Father desires what is good for us, Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble his way as it says in the responsorial psalm.

If we see ourselves as either of the two sons in the Gospel, we are going to be met with hardship in the beginning or at the end. The first son actually does the father’s will; it doesn’t say if the second ever does or not. This hardship, this whuppin’, this offer we can’t refuse must be met with a certain disposition, a certain attitude which we find in the second reading.

St. Paul writes to the Philippians, …have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus. Paul continues in the famous Philippian hymn, Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. I want to point out two things in this passage.

The first is about grasping. We as human beings grasp, even in our society we take things – not to the point of stealing, but if it’s there, we use it, we take it. As a baby infant, what is one of the first things they learn to do? They grasp. They take they absorb and usually put it in their mouth. But what does the scripture say, Jesus did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Jesus didn’t grasp, he emptied himself. You cannot receive from God, when your hands are full of something else and not open to receive it. Neither can you fill a cup with water if it is already filled with dirt or something else. Therefore in life, in order to God’s will, one must have the attitude and imitation of Christ: a self-emptying heart so that God can fill it himself.

The second point is about humility. After you empty yourself, after you have stripped away all those unnecessary things around you, can you finally see who you are before God. Humility then comes from seeing the truth in ourselves – not what we want to see or what we want others to see, but what God sees. Jesus out of His love for us came to be one of us. He emptied himself by taking upon Himself a human nature to take on our sufferings and our sins; dying on the cross.

Perhaps why Jesus left out those details in the Gospel of the whuppin’ of those two sons was because he already knew that he was going to take on that whuppin’ for us? He was made sin for us on the cross, to suffer and die. In every Holy Mass we celebrate, we remember what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do for us; His sacrifice on the cross was to be our whuppin’. Before, we were all the second sons saying, “Yes Father” and then turning around to do our thing – sinning against Him and against our neighbor. But now the Father has made us an offer through the offering of His Son. Jesus has offered himself the only begotten Son of the Father so that we too, can also become the Father’s sons through baptism and the Eucharist, so that we too can enjoy in His glory. Jesus Christ has emptied himself for us, shown us how to humble ourselves in humility and now has not a punishment, but an offer – an offer we can’t refuse. So that when the Father asks us to go out and work in the vineyard today, we say, “Yes Father, Not my will but Thine be done’.”