Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 27, 2020

Welcome to the one hundred and thirty-first episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

The Parable of the Two Sons

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) In our Gospel reading on Sunday, Jesus tells the Parable of the Two Sons to the chief priests and elders of the people. He said, “A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” (Mt 21:28-30) They answered, “The first.” (Mt 21:31)

Then, “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.’” (Mt. 21:31-32)

The two sons represent the religious leaders and the religious outcasts who followed John’s call to repentance. By the answer they give to Jesus’ question the leaders condemn themselves. When we answer that question, we condemn ourselves. It is not enough to give lip service to the importance of doing the will of God. Rather, his will must be carried out in our actions. This is integrity.

Integrity: Nothing Else Matters

American businessman and New York Times bestselling author Harvey Mackay said, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” Most people I know will agree with him that being a person of integrity is important. This is evidenced in the leadership development workshops I’ve done over the years. In order to define what a great leader is, I ask the group to list three qualities of someone in leadership that they admire. Integrity is guaranteed to make the list.

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. ~ Harvey Mackay Click to Tweet

But when I ask the same group what integrity means the definitions are all over the place. Some will say it means honesty and others trustworthiness. Some will say, “Integrity is doing what you say you are going to do.”, and others will quote C.S. Lewis and say, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” To some extent, they are all right because integrity is a quality with many attributes.

Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. ~ C.S. Lewis Click to Tweet

The dictionary definition of integrity has three dimensions: 1) the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, which translates to doing the right thing even when no one is looking; 2) the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction, which translates to being trustworthy; and 3) the state of being whole and undivided, which means your walk matches your talk and you do what you say you are going to do.

Integrity Breeds Trust

People who demonstrate integrity draw others to them because they are trustworthy and dependable. We want everyone around us to act with integrity. Integrity in business can strengthen relationships with vendors and customers because they can trust you’ll keep your promises and act honorably if something goes wrong. When integrity is absent, there is a lack of trust and teamwork implodes.

Being Trustworthy

In addition to wanting others around us to act with integrity, we also like to think of ourselves as people of integrity. That’s what Kevin Sheridan, founder of Rutgers Painting, thought. I interviewed him when I was writing my book, The Value of Core Values. This is what he told me:

“The main core value at Rutgers Painting is to do what we say we’re going to do. That’s it in a nutshell. We believe in keeping our word. It was easy for me to think about core values for my business. I discovered early on that building trust by keeping your word was good for business. From the beginning, I built my company on the idea that I would develop trusting relationships with my customers.

“Ironically, only later did I realize that I was making a mistake by not doing the same thing in my personal life. When I was younger and dating, I would think, “I’m a guy. I don’t have to be on time. It’s okay if I change my plans quickly.” But I later realized that I was creating a lack of trust in all my relationships. When I started living my word, I created trusted relationships in my personal life as well as in business.

St. Pope John Paul II said every time we perform a moral act, we affect the world in a particular way but in a deeper way we also are creating the person we are becoming. When we make a moral decision, knowing full well what is at stake, we are defining the character of the persons we are becoming. We are laying a brick in the wall of the edifice of our character.

When we make a moral decision, we are laying a brick in the wall of the edifice of our character. ~ St. Pope John Paul II Click to Tweet

The Slippery Slope

Most people don’t wake up in the morning planning to do something immoral or unethical. Instead, a lack of integrity starts with a small act, like not keeping a commitment to a friend or a gray area that is justified and buried in our conscience. These small compromises don’t seem like a big deal, but before we know it, they become like the snowball that is rolling downhill, gathering speed and size on its way. That’s probably why C.S. Lewis said, “The safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. ~ C. S. Lewis. Click to Tweet

We walk down that gentle slope to Hell when we refuse to seek the truth and fail to admit we are wrong. We follow that safe road when pride is our guide. How often do you hear a Catholic say, “I think the Church is wrong about her teachings about marriage, divorce, abortion, contraception, immigration, euthanasia, the death penalty, the environment, or you name it.”, without even reading why the Church teaches what she does? Somehow they believe they are wiser than the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and know better about these things. Pride is an obstacle to integrity. We’ve all been guilty of this at some point in our lives. I know I have. But if we want to be like the first son, we must humble ourselves to the truth, because as Spencer Johnson M.D. the author of Who Moved My Cheese said, “Honesty is telling the truth to other people. Integrity is telling myself the truth.”

Integrity, Truth, and Humility

Telling ourselves the truth or accepting the truth from others requires humility. In fact, in defining humility, St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Humilitas Veritas,” or humility is truth. What he means is, when you are humble, you are in touch with reality. You can surround yourself with people who are willing to speak the truth in love and you’re willing to admit the reality of your failures.

Humility is truth. ~ St. Thomas Aquinas Click to Tweet

At work, humility makes integrity possible because the individuals within the organization are willing to be held accountable by each other to the organization’s core values. They also are willing to provide feedback because they know that others will humbly accept the truth when they are being held accountable. Without accountability, day-to-day pressures can easily override an allegiance to a company’s core values.

Speak the Truth in Love

Peter Cunzolo, CEO of ExecuJet Charter Services explained it this way when I interviewed him for The Value of Core Values:

“Our commitment to core values encourages accountability. We have a culture of trust and transparency, where people feel comfortable enough to speak the truth in love. If you have a group of people who are familiar with one another, and they have backed each other up and have mutual respect, when someone has kind of fallen off the wagon, so to speak, you can pull them aside and say, ‘This isn’t like you. What’s going on? How did this happen?’ Those conversations become very easy because you’re related in a sense. Speaking the truth in love is hard to do, but it’s so valuable. People know that you’re not just picking, but that you really care. You care enough and respect them enough to tell them the truth.”

Which brings me to the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians where he makes a plea for humility. He encourages us to discard our pride and cling to humility, saying “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.” (Phil 2:3) Caring enough about others to speak the truth, not out of selfishness, or to put them down, but out of righteousness is helping them to become better versions of themselves. Keeping our pride in check when listening to others speak the truth, is how we become better versions of ourselves.

Choosing Bricks of our Character

So, like the man who asks his sons to go out and work in the vineyard (Mt 21:28), God is calling each of his children to holiness. We have a choice to make. Say “yes” to our Father, but not really mean it, or humbly acknowledge when we’ve failed to say “yes” and then do what is right.

Actually, we have hundreds and thousands of choices to make on our life’s journey, each one a brick in the wall of our character. Knowing we will fail from time to time, it is critical to have others in our lives who can help us recognize when we’ve lost our way. But ultimately it is up to us to humbly accept their feedback and repent. Otherwise, tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before us.

But, there is good news for repentant sinners, as the Prophet Ezekiel told us in our first reading, “If he turns from the wickedness he has committed, he does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” (Ez 18:27-28)

So, let’s pray from Sunday’s Psalm 25, that we may live a life of integrity, humbly listening to the truth, and making corrections when we fail.

Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. You are good and upright, Lord; show me, a sinner the way. Help me to be humble so that you may guide me to justice and teach me your way.

May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life.

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