What do we do?

The story in Matthew’s Gospel, in the Roman Catholic lectionary for today, is familiar to most families. The family member is asked to do a task. He/she declines the request. Another accepts the request but does not do the job. The first rethinks the decision and completes the task. The question asked in the Gospel is “Who has done the will of the Father?” The answer is not clear. Today, we sometimes need to wrestle with the idea that “trying is doing”. We encounter ideas that working on something is as valuable as completing it. Perhaps the sibling who accepted the request worked on it, earned partial marks and felt that had ‘passed’ in terms of doing the will of the Father. Perhaps the person who re-thought the request and completed the job was late. Maybe the Father’s request was for immediate action. From another point of view, we might consider the value in the ability to change our mind. This is difficult. The ego is a definite challenge when we need to re-consider. Prompt, reliable, flexible and thorough, with the ability to change our mind. Wouldn’t we like to work with that person?

Dealing with our Choices

Isaiah, the Psalmist and Matthew in the Scripture from today’s Roman Catholic Lectionary offer words that resonate with teachers at this end of semester time. Teachers reflect that the students would be in better places had they made better choices during the semester. The gift of seeing the choices from the point of view of the one who chooses is the path to understanding and compassion. It is the view of the Divine toward our choices. We see ourselves in the persons who Isaiah sees have missed the gracious gift of God, who have chosen to sit with scorners and who seem to be the hard to understand people of ‘this generation’. The real story in all of these examples is Redemption and restoration of the relationship which hopefully follows in teaching and learning and is guaranteed to follow in our relationship with the Divine.