Here’s a little parable for your Sunday morning. Johnny and Billy were lounging around on a Saturday morning playing video games when their mom popped her head into the room. “Boys, I need you to do your outdoor chores today. It’s going to rain tomorrow.” Johnny refused. “You can pay someone to do your dirty work,” he told his mother. But Billy smiled angelically and said, “Sure, Mom. I’ll get right on it.” His mother beamed at him while throwing Johnny a frustrated scowl. “Suck up,” muttered Johnny.
The boys continued to play in a desultory fashion for a while. But Johnny’s conscience started to bother him. His mom did so much for the family. And the height of the grass outside was starting to make the house look condemned. He reluctantly got up, got dressed, went outside and fired up the lawn mower. Meanwhile, Billy whiled away the hours on the couch. No matter how many times his mom reminded him, by dinner time he had still not completed his chores.
As you might guess, this is a parable from the New Testament. After telling the story, Jesus asks his followers, “Which of the two did his father’s (or mother’s!) will?” The answer, of course, is obvious. So often in life we express good intentions. We want to be good, or at least be seen as being good. We “talk the talk.” But do we “walk the walk”?
I am guilty of this tendency to talk a good game but fail to follow through. It’s easy to promote charitable works and family values. But I’m not always willing to do the hard work of actually promoting these ideals. All the talk about feeding the hungry, for instance, won’t put food in their bellies. But getting that food to them will. And as much as I’d like to think I am a kind and compassionate person, how often do I go out of my way to help the people in my life?
There is a lot of hypocrisy in society. Politicians often espouse feel-good values, but the actions they take as our government leaders often belie their words. The same is true for many companies, whose public image lies contrary to how they treat their employees or customers. And one of the worst kinds of hypocrisy is the religious kind. So many pious pronouncements mask intolerance and selfishness. It’s one of the reasons the number of people who practice any particular religion is on the decline.
The message in today’s Gospel is so incredibly simple and yet so incredibly difficult for us to follow. As the saying goes, your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying.
Because I Said So 