Jesus has come like a king into his city, like a God into his Temple. Yet he’s come like a man, a peasant, a challenger. Which is why they opposed him, why they killed him in the end.

But he is king, and he is God, even though he comes in such a lowly form. Entering the city, humble upon a donkey, hailed by children and peasants, in friendship with those on the margins, those conventionally exiled from meaningful society, Jesus upturned every valuation, every thought, every judgment of those who thought they knew, who thought they had it right. But they didn’t know or have it right, and that’s the point. That’s why the kingdom was taken away from them.

The moral point of this passage from Matthew’s gospel should challenge us—this haunting story of the tenants of God’s vineyard rejecting God’s son (Matthew 21:33-43). If it doesn’t, we’ve not read it very well. What Jesus is saying to us is that our credentials don’t matter—our Catholicism, our Catholic schooling, our Mass attendance, none of it—if we don’t first and always have faith in Christ. Jesus is God, but when he met the people who should’ve recognized him (the religiously educated, the authorities), they didn’t. In fact, they opposed him. And that’s the lesson: they were blind. And it’s the lesson for us: let’s not be blind.

We should rejoice in our Catholic life and culture, our schools and our heritage. But we shouldn’t be proud because of it. We shouldn’t let it blind us to God’s will and action. Sometimes we can get so proud about our Catholicism, we subtly begin to think we know better than God. And that’s when we become blind. It happens.

But also, don’t be one of those who think your Catholic credentials frees you of the responsibility of living the Catholic life, one of those Catholics who says, “I went to Catholic school for 12 years,” but who follows it up with nothing but an utterly un-Catholic life. Don’t be like that. That’s a horrible blindness as bad as any religious self-righteousness, and just as damaging.

So, focus (or refocus) on Christ—in prayer, in scripture, in sacraments. Abandon everything but your heart and obedience for him. It will change you.