After Mass one Sunday morning, a little boy said to his mother, "Mommy, I’ve decided to become a priest when I grow up." She said, "That’s very nice, Johnny; but, what made you decide that?"

"Well," he said, "Since I’ve got to go to Mass on Sunday anyway, I think it’ll be much more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen."

One day a CCD teacher asked her first grade students, "Children, why should we be quiet in church?" A little girl raised her hand and said, "Because people are sleeping."

Four-year-old Joseph became restless during the priest’s homily—which was almost as long as one of mine. Finally, he leaned over toward his mother and said, "Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?"

Those 3 little anecdotes represent 3 different responses to the preached Word of God. The first boy thought that the delivery was more important than the content; the little girl obviously thought that homily-time was the "rest period" of the Mass (which is understandable since she had just graduated from kindergarten); and little Joseph didn’t want to hear any of it. He just wanted out!

The Word of God always elicits a response, especially if it’s preached and taught as it should be. Perhaps you recognized your typical response to the Lord’s Word in one of those little anecdotes. (I certainly hope you didn’t; but you might have.)

Responses to God’s Word can be many and varied; however, when all is said and done I think you can put them all into one of four categories. The categories can be designated in this way: Yes; No; Yes-maybe-no; No-maybe-yes.

The first two are easily explained and understood. When we hear God’s Word and agree with what we hear, we are likely to respond with a "Yes"—an "Amen"—in our heart. And if the "yes" is a real yes, we will certainly make the effort to put the message into practice and live it on a daily basis. The yes will be a definitive, consistent yes. On the other hand, when we hear the Word and it rubs us the wrong way (so to speak), or challenges us in ways we’d rather not be challenged, we may choose respond with an unequivocal "No." We will tune out the Biblical text—or the preacher—or both—and that will be the end of it. (Now I’m sure this has never happened at St. Pius when I’ve talked about tough moral issues and the like, but I’ve heard that it has happened in some other places!)

And yet these are probably not the most typical human responses to God’s Word. It’s quite possible that the last two I mentioned are much more common: the "Yes-maybe-no" response, and the "No-maybe-yes" response. These, by the way, are beautifully illustrated in the conduct of the two sons in today’s Gospel parable from Matthew 21. We are told there that one boy initially said "yes" to his father’s command, but never followed through on it. His response to his father’s word went from, "Yes, dad, I’ll get right on it," to "Maybe I’ll do it and maybe I won’t," to "Forget it. I’ve got better things to do with my time." (Yes-maybe-no.)

For the other son, the opposite was true. He started off with a clear and defiant "No," but eventually reconsidered. He passed through the "maybe" stage, and finally ended up saying "yes" to his dad’s command. (No-maybe-yes.)

Because we human beings are so weak and fickle, these last two responses are probably more common than the clear and consistent "yes" and the clear and consistent "no." For example, how many people say "yes" to a Scripture passage or a homily in church, and then forget all about it when they get home? On the practical level, they go from yes to maybe to no—and the quality of their lives doesn’t change for the better.

But then—praise God—we have the opposite phenomenon. A good example of this is provided by the teenage girl whose letter I quoted in my homily 3 weeks ago. (Some of you may remember this.) Before she attended her first Steubenville youth conference, this girl’s life consisted of "boys, beer, and seeing how much we could drink and being proud of that."

But, at the conference, she heard the Word of God clearly proclaimed in the talks that were given—and it’s obvious that at first she didn’t like it! She said, "No!" Listen again to her description of her response: "I felt God telling me that in order to live a good, Christian life, I would have to give [all] this up. My first reaction was, ‘What? Give up alcohol and all the partying? Forget it!’ But, as time went on, I began to think about what God had said. I had been trying to fill a void in my life with alcohol, and it didn’t make me happy. I noticed, however, that God gave me a joy that I had never felt before. I decided I was going to change, and my attitude toward drinking became totally different.

She went from "no" to "maybe" to "yes"—and her life radically changed for the better, as the rest of her letter indicates. It was extremely hard for her to make this move from no to yes. That’s often the way it is, because Satan does his best to keep us locked into our "no." He makes the "no" seem attractive; he makes the "no" appear to be good. Just ask that teenage girl.

I said earlier that you can put all possible responses to God’s Word into one of four categories. That’s true. But, ultimately, there really are only two possible responses to the Lord’s Word: yes or no. It’s either, "Yes, Lord, I believe and I will obey," or it’s "No, I don’t believe and I won’t obey."