Vogel: In truth and humility

Jesus taunts the religious authorities, the Pharisees and the Herodians.

These were politically motivated groups that opposed each other but conspired together against Jesus.

It’s easy to see the good and bad in Jesus’s parables — the son who says “yes” but disobeys versus the one who says “no” but does his father’s will; the landowner and his servants versus the tenants.

In a mortal world, there will always be the good and the bad — in politics, in governance, in churches and in the heart of every individual.

Is the son who said “no” but relented purely good? Why did he say “no”? Are the landowner and his servants good? Why does he live in opulence off of his tenant’s labor?

Are the Pharisees and Herodians bad? Don’t they have a vision of grandeur that God promised for His chosen people?

Sin is bad, Jesus is good — on that we can rely. Jesus is truth, and that is the stone on which His Church is built. Not the Church of structures and hierarchy, but the Church of hearts and souls of all mankind.

Jesus taunted the institutions and He taunted the evil in the hearts of those who wielded the power of those institutions. But all around Him were the poor and lowly, who free of mantles of wealth and power had hearts more pure than those thus burdened.

His kinship is with all mankind, the lowly and great, but so often He warned of the dangers of power and wealth.

Jesus warned of the consequences awaiting His enemies. They would be left waiting at the gate while “tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom of heaven before you.”

How can we avoid that fate? Do power and wealth come only with a sentence of damnation? Was there no hope for the Jewish elite?

God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation. Surely He must have intended that His chosen people would acquire wealth and power. But perhaps the greatness that God promised was the wisdom that comes when humility recognizes truth.

Few of us think of ourselves as having wealth and power. For those who labor under the burden of those gifts, we pray they will have that wisdom and not be crushed by the stone that is Jesus.

As we wish for those with more power and wealth than ourselves, we must recognize that even whatever little or much we may have is a gift to be used humbly for the glory of God.

And if the day comes when we look around and see that we have nothing, as so many have in recent weeks, we should know that whatever we may receive in time of great need is truly a gift from God.

Mr. Vogel is a member of Cathedral of St. Joseph parish in Jefferson City.