God's Favorite?

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Kids will often joke, though sometimes they are serious, about who is the favorite child.  Of course, parents love all their children, but still, sometimes there’s a seeming favorite, whether it be the oldest or the baby.  You might think that, in my family, the son who is a priest would be the favorite, but I will tell you that my two sisters who have provided my parents with grandchildren probably have a bit of lead on me.  I’m sure my mother would say we’re all her favorites.
    Who is God’s favorite child?  It’s hard to imagine God having a favorite.  That seems contrary to what our modern sensibility would like to envision.  Probably, like my mom, we would imagine that we’re all God’s favorites.  
    But from the parable we heard today the message is clear: the one who does the will of the Father is the favorite.  Not the one who says he will do the will of the Father, but the one who actually follows through and does it, even if at first the child didn’t want to follow through.  Jesus makes it clear that tax collectors and prostitutes were making it into heaven before the chief priests and elders (probably a hard pill to swallow that a woman of ill repute could make it to heaven before someone who had devoted his life to divine worship).  And it’s not because they are tax collectors and prostitutes.  It’s because they changed their life when the Word of God was preached to them.  They may have originally rejected God’s invitation to work in the vineyard by their rejection of God’s laws, but at the preaching of John or Jesus, they repented and changed their life.  On the flip side were the chief priests and elders who probably prided themselves on being open to do the will of God, but when God Himself appeared before them, calling even them to conversion, they rejected Jesus, God-made-man, and hardened their hearts (at least most of them did).  
    At this idea that God has a favorite, we might repeat what we heard from the prophet Isaiah today: “‘The Lord’s way is not fair!’”  How could God prefer someone to another?  Of course, at this point we have to affirm that God loves everyone; otherwise they would cease to exist.  But what does God value?  God values actions over lip-service.  Or, to use a cliché, talk is cheap.  Take a family example: your spouse says to you once a week: “I love you.”  But then you’ve got extra work and won’t be home until late, and your spouse doesn’t make dinner, but waits for you to get home.  Or your spouse doesn’t take out the trash that is over-flowing.  Or your spouse just doesn’t make time for you very much at all: he or she doesn’t ask about your day, show concern over your priorities, or even give you a simple hug and/or kiss.  Would you say that the spouse really loved you?  He or she may say it, but anyone can say, “I love you.”  The way you know it’s true is by the actions that follow from those words.  
    I’m obviously preaching to people who care something for God.  After all, you took time out of your Sunday to come to Mass.  And I can imagine your prayer, if it’s anything like mine, includes some way of saying to God, “I love you.”  But do you actions show that love?  Besides going to Mass, is there other evidence that you love God beyond those words?  Or, to use another cliché, if you were put on trial for being a Catholic, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  Would a jury of twelve people from Genesee County be convinced that you follow Jesus in the one Church He founded, or would they find any evidence circumstantial at best?  Would it be reasonable of them to doubt your love of God?  Of course, I can’t answer that question for you.  But it’s a great examination of conscience question.

    St. Paul describes today how Christ showed His love for us: He died for us.  He didn’t hold on to His equality with God.  He didn’t cling to what was rightfully His.  He emptied Himself; He lowered Himself.  He died, so that we might live.  And that death was the proof of the love of Jesus for God the Father, the freely-made sacrifice of His own life for our good, the good of His beloved creation to be able to be with Him in heaven forever.  Jesus is the favorite Son because He not only said, as Psalm 40 states, “Behold, I come to do your will,” but then followed through in His actions, even when this meant “death on a cross.”  Jesus worked in the vineyard, even though it meant utter humiliation and suffering, but still embraced it because it was the will of the Father.  
    God loves each of us, no matter what we say, no matter what we do.  But our Lord clearly states that if we wish to be God’s favorite, and there’s room enough for all of us to be God’s favorite, we cannot simply say that we love God, or that we follow Him, or that we want what He wants.  If we wish that elevated status, then we must follow through on what we say with what we do.  Even if in the past we have said no to God, today choose to do His will, and find it that action the sign of our acceptance of salvation.