Day 23: Let Your Yes Mean Yes

This afternoon I was talking to my dad on the phone. He asked me to stop by their house and take in the mail since they were away. He had reminded me earlier in the week as well. I assured him I would. I had a busy day and got caught up with things. I left work. Didn't take in the mail.

Seems like a little thing and it kind of is, but it can stand for something bigger too: what he asked me to do was not important enough in my mind to do, I told him I would, and I didn't follow through. My 'yes' was not 'yes.'

Jesus tells a parable of two sons (Mt21:28-32). He went the first and said,

"Son, go and work today in the vineyard."

'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. he answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go.

'Which of the two did what his father wanted?'

"The first," they answered.

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them "the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him."

Words are cheap, aren't they? It doesn't matter what you say, and well-intentions aren't really important at the end of days. What matters is that you take Jesus at his word and do what he asks of us: repent and believe. Isn't this the whole of Lent, what we are called to with the ashes on our forehead: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel!"

"Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no." 

(Mt 5:37)