SEPTEMBER 27, 2026 ARCHBISHOP MARCEL DAMPHOUSSE
Jesus today makes a shocking declaration. “Surely, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you.”
At first, when I first hear this, there’s this reaction within me that says, “Well, how can this be? That’s really not fair. Why try and live a holy life just to be told that the sinners are going to go ahead of me in the Kingdom of God. I really don’t understand,” and so, maybe we need to go a little deeper in today’s gospel reading to truly get the message that Jesus is sharing with us because it’s filled with hope, a lot of hope.
What he’s saying is that the prostitutes, the tax collectors, these public sinners, because of their conversion, because they listened to John the Baptist, they listened to the word of God, and so, changed their lives around. That is what makes them come ahead into the Kingdom of God before the chief priest and the elders to which Jesus is speaking to.
This tells me that there is great hope for any sinner. No matter where we’re at in life. God is merciful to those who change their ways. And that’s exactly what we heard in today’s first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel is reminding the people of God to change their ways because if they don’t, it’s practically like losing their lives. They are called to live a holy covenant with God. And so, it requires from them like it requires from us a life that is worthy of God’s ways. And so, this call to conversion is so important.
He says, “Again, when the wicked person turns away from the wickedness that they have committed and does what is lawful and right, they save their life.”
And so, God sent Jesus into our world to help us understand that there’s always a chance for us to enter into the Kingdom of God despite where we might be at in life right now. Yes, conversion is a true calling and when we embraced this conversion, when we allow the word of God to transform us from deep inside, then we enter into a whole new life and then we belong into the Kingdom of God.
Now, what is the Kingdom of God? Jesus speaks at the beginning about, asks this parable of this man, this father, who asks his two sons to go and work in the vineyard. The vineyard is the Kingdom of God.
And so, we need to understand that the Kingdom of God is something that God entrusts to us and we need to kind of just simply ask ourselves today, well, in what way do I intentionally live my Christian life where I go to work every day for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
Freely, take this to heart. We will want to be attentive to all the things we do and the things we don’t do and have that conversion of heart and truly seek in God’s ways, so let’s pray for one another today.
Let’s offer this Holy Eucharist in such a way that we go deeper in our relationship with Christ who gives Himself to us so that we may become part of the Kingdom of God, we become the Body of Christ and so help our world today. Amen.
