We humans don’t like change. A 2015 McKinsey study shows that 70 percent of change programs in the workplace fail because of employee resistance and lack of support.[1] Another study points out that “while we usually accept that change leads to growth, we also resist change because it’s uncomfortable.”[2] Personal business coach Jim Earley sums it up nicely: “When forced to embrace change, 10 percent will respond like James Bond, 10 percent will respond like Moe Howard from the Three Stooges, and 80 percent will do nothing at all.”[3] Simply put, we don’t like change. But today’s Gospel calls us to change anyway because Christianity is all about, well, Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes. Let’s take a look at why.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus emphasizes our need to change through the Parable of the Two Sons. He compares the first son, who initially refused to do his father’s bidding, to prostitutes and tax collectors. These “stereotypical sinners of Jesus’ day” don’t want to live according to God’s will but change their minds when they hear John the Baptist preaching.[4] The chief priests and the elders, on the other hand, are like the second son. They agree to work for God but don’t. “They talk about divine demands and ways but [don’t] live by them because [they’re] inconvenient and require them to change how they spend their time.”[5] Jesus’ simple point is this: those of us who repent and follow his ways will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, even if we come late to the game. In short, if we want to go to Heaven, we have to change.
So what kind of change are we talking about here? Well it’s pretty extreme. Last week’s first reading from Isaiah tells us that our ways aren’t God’s ways, and God’s ways aren’t our ways (Isaiah 55:6-9). Well, our ways need to be God’s ways. Distorted by sin, our world is turned upside down. Jesus came to turn the world right side up. He came to help us change our lives completely. As disorienting and uncomfortable as it may be initially, changing our lives is for our own good. It leads us to eternal life.
You see, Greek has two words for life: bios, physical, material life; and zoe, eternal life, God’s life. We humans were intended to live bios and zoe simultaneously and harmoniously, but sin interfered with that plan. So God sent his only Son not just to teach us, but to show us, through his perfect example, that it’s possible to live God’s eternal life right here in our physical, material world. Jesus came to divinize us—to return us to the likeness of God that was bestowed on humanity at Creation. In fact, we pray to be divinized at every Mass. You may notice the deacon praying softly as we add a drop of water to the wine to prepare the chalice for the Eucharist. Here’s what we pray: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” We pray for zoe, we pray to live God’s perfect, eternal life right now.
Unfortunately, we tend to cling to our familiar, comfortable bios, and shun, disregard, or even fear zoe. We don’t like change, but Christ demands nothing less from us than radical change. As C.S. Lewis explained it, “A [person] who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being carved stone to being a real [person]. And that is precisely what Christianity is about.”[6] It’s about continuing the “sublime transaction of the Incarnation in which Christ said to [humanity], ‘You give me your humanity, I will give you my divinity. You give me your time, I will give you my eternity. You give me your bonds, I will give you my omnipotence. You give me your slavery, I will give you my all.’”[7] Christ came not to just make us better people, but to make us fully human, God-like. It’s not like teaching a horse to jump higher and higher. It’s like showing a horse that it can actually fly.
How do we get there? We follow the perfect role model identified in our second reading—Jesus Christ, “who humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross.” Change starts with humility, and Jesus is the best example. We follow Jesus’ humble example by acknowledging that we need to change. We accept Jesus’s invitation to change by identifying how our ways don’t measure up to God’s ways. We effectuate God’s plan to change the world by accepting that the changes we want to see in the world will only come about if we change ourselves first.
Let’s face it, we live in trouble times where human life is threatened by abortion, violence, war, and euthanasia. If I want a better world, I have to accept that “the conversion of the world begins with me as I learn to be less reactive, less anger-prone, less ridiculing, less bigoted, less fearful. The conversion of the world begins when I ask God . . . to help me to deeply love everyone, even the difficult people in my life. The conversion of the world begins when I . . . forgive people who have harmed or hurt me. The conversion of the world starts when I . . . more deeply experience the dignity of every person, especially the most vulnerable, the poor and the troubled.”[8] When I change myself, others benefit as well, and our world begins to look a lot more like the Kingdom of God. We need to ask ourselves, then: Will I embrace Christ’s invitation to eternal life by exchanging my ways for God’s ways, or will I avoid it?
You know, only one out of nine people will make lifestyle changes like diet and exercise even if they could prolong their life, restore their health, reverse diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease by doing so?[9] That means that only 11 percent of us choose life, and 89 percent choose death. I hope the same isn’t true of our spiritual lives. No, we don’t like change—it’s uncomfortable, scary, and some of Jesus’ teachings seem downright strange. But in the words of the celebrated philosopher, David Bowie, it’s time to “turn and face the strange.” It’s time to live as God intended us to live—full of life, bios and zoe. It’s time to live God’s Kingdom here and now. And just in case I haven’t firmly planted that worm in your ear, it all begins with Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
Readings: Ezekiel 18: 25-28; Psalm 25; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32
[1] Boris Ewenstein, Wesley Smith, and Ashvin Sologar, “Changing Change Management,” McKinsey & Company, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/changing-change-management#.
[2] Lucas DeBoer, “Resistance to Change at Work Holds Back Automation,” Signavio Blog, (March 4, 2020), https://www.signavio.com/post/change-at-work/.
[3] Rich Becker, “If 80 Percent of People Won’t Change, Why Force Them?” Words. Concepts. Strategies, (September 25, 2020), http://www.richardrbecker.com/2014/03/if-80-percent-of-people-wont-change-why.html.
[4] Elizabeth M. Nagel, Elaine Park, and Mary Pat Healy, Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers, and Proclaimers of the Word: 2020, Year A (Chicago: Liturgical Training Publications, 2020), 256.
[5] Ibid.
[6] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 2001), 159.
[7] Fulton J. Sheen, Go to Heaven (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1960), 184.
[8] Monsignor Charles Pope.
[9] Becker.
