25th
Ordinary Sunday (Year A)
First
Reading: Isaiah 55:6-9 Second
Reading: Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a
Gospel Reading: Matthew
20:1-16a
“ARE
YOU ENVIOUS BECAUSE I AM GENEROUS?”
There
was a guy who died and was being given a tour of heaven, and he saw a
friend of his drive by in a beautiful Mercedes. He said, "Boy,
this is great!"
"Oh,
yes," St. Peter said, "your friend was really
generous on earth; we had a lot to work with. Your transportation up
here depends on your generosity down there." Then St. Peter
gave him his transportation: a Honda motor scooter.
He
said, "Wait a minute, he gets a Mercedes, and I get a
scooter?"
"That's
right, it's all we had to work with." So the guy drove off
in a huff.
A
week later Peter saw this guy all smiles and said, "You
feeling better now?"
The
guy said, "Yea, I have ever since I saw my preacher go by on
a skateboard!"
A life of generosity
reflects God’s nature in a special way. Surely, God is just; but He
is also outrageously generous and merciful at the same time. We
do not get what we deserve. Rather God gives us
more than we deserve. Today, He calls each one of us to be a generous
people.
Today
is the 25th
Sunday in Ordinary Time and we continue reflecting upon the meaning
of Christian discipleship. The dominant theme of the Scripture
Readings of today is that God is outrageously generous and merciful,
and that His wisdom surpasses
our human categories of value and judgment.
In
the
First Reading
from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah exhorts the people of
Israel, returned from exile in Babylon, to sincerely search for the
Lord who is merciful and generous. Dispirited by the experience of a
devastated homeland, they have become weary of their faith and their
vaunted heritage. He reminds them that the Lord’s ways are not
obvious to us, and need to be actively sought while we have the
opportunity. The
Gospel Reading from
St. Matthew, presents us with 'the
Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard'
that demonstrates the difference between our spontaneous judgments
and God’s ways. In the Kingdom of Heaven, all are equally loved.
Human standards are not to be used to measure God’s generosity
which is founded on His mercy and compassion. His ideals of justice,
concern and love for all can never be matched by any purely human
program. It is God’s will and wisdom to save all who want to work
for Him, and that should be our intention too. In
the Second Reading from his Letter to the Philippians, St.
Paul shows us the spirit of true Christian service. He
asserts that he would bring honor to Christ, whether by life or
death. Death for him is gain for he would relish the heavenly reward.
To continue to live in this world, however, would mean a more
fruitful labor for the Gospel. This would benefit more greatly the
community of faith and encourage them to live a life worthy of the
Gospel.
“THE
LORD IS GENEROUS AND FORGIVING.”
In
the
First Reading
from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah exhorts the people of
Israel, returned from exile in Babylon, to actively search for the
Lord who is abundantly merciful and outrageously generous. He tells
them to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call Him while He
is near. Dispirited by the experience of a devastated homeland, they
have become weary of their faith and their vaunted heritage. Isaiah
tells them that they have abandoned God, God has not abandoned them.
They wanted to repay their enemies for the losses inflicted on them,
but the Lord was for mercy. They wanted vengeance, but the
Lord is generous in forgiving.
And yet, this Lord is near to them. He urges them to surrender their
petty ambitions and selfish dreams, and to forsake their wicked ways
and to turn to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. He further reminds
them that the Lord’s thoughts and His ways are not obvious - they
are unfathomable; His willingness to redeem the people exceeds their
ability to grasp it. That is to say that the glory of God’s
generosity and forgiveness is beyond comprehension and it calls for a
response from the people in the form of a return to covenant
fidelity.
THE
PARABLE OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINYARD:
In
the Gospel Reading of today from St. Matthew, we hear Jesus telling
his disciples 'the Parable of the Laborers
in the Vineyard.' This is one of the parables of the
Kingdom of Heaven, which is found only in the Gospel of St.
Matthew. In
the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable that compares the Kingdom of Heaven
to a generous landowner who hires laborers at different hours
throughout the day for his vineyard. The parable is not about fair or
unfair compensation, but it is about generosity. At the end of the
day, the landowner pays them all
a day's wage as agreed. Jesus cleverly puts this twist in the parable
in order to show us the sharp contrast between God’s justice and
human justice; between God’s ways and our ways.
a)
“Why do you stand here idle all day?”
The
Parable of the laborers in the
Vineyard begins with a landowner going out to hire some men to labor
in his vineyard. During the time of Jesus, people who desired work
went to the public square early in the morning. Those in need of
laborers went there to hire those they needed. This was what the
landowner in the parable did. Picking the most skilled to work in his
vineyard and their wage was agreed upon - 'the
usual daily wage.'
The landowner went out again at nine o'clock, at noon and at three
o'clock in the afternoon. Each time the landowner promised to pay
them 'what
is just.' Going
out before dark, at about five o'clock, the land owner found others
standing around and asked them, “Why
do you stand here idle all day?”
And
when they said that because no one hired them, he just told them to
go to his vineyard and work and he made no mention of money to the
last lot. They were idle, not because of laziness but because no one
wanted to employ them. The parable in general seems to put a value
on work and on the right to work.
b)
“Summon the laborers and give them their pay.”
At
the end of the day the landowner said to his foreman, “Summon
the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and
ending with the first.” Surprise,
surprise! The last lot, the five o'clock crowd got 'a
full
day's
wages.'
They didn't complain! Usually they don't get much generosity. So,
they kept quiet when it happened. Then the others, including the
all-day group, were paid. They expected to be paid more, but they too
were paid the same amount. And on receiving it they grumbled against
the landowner, for, they thought 'injustice'
was done to them. The landowner of the vineyard may have caused
dissatisfaction among those who worked longer hours, but he also
brought joyful surprise to those who worked later in the day. Instead
of grumbling against the landowner, couldn't those who have worked
longer rejoice with their co-workers' good fortune?
c)
“Are you envious
because I am generous?”
This
parable is
actually once again talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. To
understand this, we need to consider the question Jesus asked, “Are
you envious because I am generous?”
The parable is not primarily about justice though it is included -
the landowner had complied with the agreed upon daily wage for those
hired first - but about something beyond justice, namely, the love,
goodness and generosity of God, even and
specially for latecomers in the Kingdom. In the parable God is
actually the landowner, we are the laborers and the day's wage is
eternal life in heaven. Surely, God is not unjust or unfair, but He
is also generous, compassionate and merciful and His thoughts and
ways are different from that of the world. He is generous in opening
the doors of His Kingdom to all who will enter - both those who have
labored a life time for Him and those who came at the last hour, and
giving them all the same reward of eternal life.
This parable
of Jesus invariably involves a shocking 'twist'
which challenges conventional wisdom and invites the listener to
re-think reality in an entirely new way. The reality portrayed in the
parable is what Jesus calls 'God’s
reign,'
and it requires of us listeners a decision to be part of that kind of
world.
d)
“Thus, the last will be first , and the first will be last.”
The
parable ends with Jesus saying, “Thus,
the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
In the Kingdom of Heaven justice and fairness do not follow worldly
values. Here, everything is done by grace and not by merit. The
righteousness we have developed in the world will not bind God in the
Kingdom of Heaven. We learn from the Gospel of today that God does
not call everybody at the same time. Truly, the righteousness of the
Lord is not the righteousness of man. The Lord God gives to those
that He pleases in the amount that He chooses. He is free to do what
He wants with what belongs to Him, namely His grace. The Lord God is
just and fair in all His dealings and no one will ever go unrewarded
for his works that are accredited to him. Our work, if truly done for
the love of God and for the salvation of others, is rewarded by the
latecomers' entrance into the Kingdom. And that is our wage.
e) The
Kingdom of Heaven seen as the Family of God:
The
notion of the Kingdom of Heaven as a 'Family
of God' is central to understanding this parable. We know
that the Kingdom of Heaven is the Reign of God; it is the
Rule of God; but in fact it is the Family of God, in which God is
the Father and all human beings are his children, and hence brothers
and sisters to one another. The values of the Kingdom of Heaven are
love & joy, care & concern, peace & justice, freedom &
equality, mercy & forgiveness, compassion & generosity, and
so on and so forth.
So,
let us now take the case of a family. Growing up in a large,
traditional, farming family has its advantages. When the crop is
ready for harvest, the whole family is out in the field working
together. They do not work at the same pace. Dad and big brother
would be in the field very early while little sister is still asleep.
Mom and little sister would join them in the farm later. You see, dad
and big brother go to work without breakfast but little sister would
not go anywhere without breakfast. When she finally arrives in the
farm she is more interested in asking silly questions and distracting
the workers than in the work itself. At the end of the day all go
home happy together. Supper is prepared and served. Does anyone
suggest that you eat as much as you have worked? Not at all! Often
the same little sister who did the least work is pampered with the
best food. Yet no one complains, no one is jealous, and everyone is
happy.
That
is to say that if we see ourselves as a family with a common purpose
and not as a bunch of individuals with different agenda, then there
will not be any complains or grumbling or jealousy over the reward of
each one of us.
“FOR
TO ME LIFE IS CHRIST, AND DEATH IS GAIN.”
St.
Paul is a privileged example of the laborer of the 'last
hour'
who benefited from the abundant riches of God’s grace. A persecutor
of Christian faith, he was converted and experienced the undeserved
free bounty of God. He is a model of a true response to Divine love
radically revealed in Jesus Christ. In today’s Second
Reading
from his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul is writing to the
Philippians from a prison in Ephesus. Awaiting a possible death
sentence, he reflects that for him both life and death take their
meaning from Christ. He asserts that with his whole being, he would
bring honor to Christ, whether he live or die. So to St. Paul, simply
speaking, 'to
live is Christ,'
in this life, and yet 'to
die is gain,'
because he is confident that he will enjoy that life with
unassailable permanence after his death. He is so convinced of God's
generosity
that he can't see any other possibility. He believes that what Jesus
achieved when he died and rose from the dead was so great that
nothing could block its effects. To continue to live in this world,
however, would mean a more fruitful labor for the Gospel. This would
benefit more greatly the community of faith and encourage them to
live a life worthy of the Gospel. Having been evangelized and brought
under the power of the Gospel, they are to reflect in their life
their belonging to Christ.
CONCLUSION:
The
Scripture Readings of today present to us a consoling picture of
Divine goodness, generosity and love. Equality, as we understand it,
may convey justice. But it is goodness, generosity and love as
personified by Jesus himself that enable us to go beyond justice and
share with those who are marginal, unfortunate and abandoned members
of society. And lest we forget, even these virtues are gifts from
God. In fact, there is nothing that we are and have that has not come
from God.
We cannot be envious or jealous because God is generous to someone
else. His divine freedom sometimes sets aside our human expectations
in a display those results in a God of surprises. Today’s Gospel
parable also tells us of the tender compassion of God. A person out
of work is a tragic figure and all the late comers wanted some
opportunity to work and God out of his generosity gives it.
Today,
God calls each one of us to be a generous people. We know forgiveness
is hard, but we see that real generosity is even harder than
forgiveness. Generosity is a fight with human nature, with what we
like to call fairness, but which can often turn into an angry
resentment - not resentment against injustice, but against the grace
God throws around however God wants to. When it happens to us, we
praise God for his grace to us and our families. When it happens to
someone else, as often as not, we get out the calculator.
Finally, we all are
welcome
to the Kingdom of Heaven; where new comers belong; where the last are
first and the excluded are included; because God’s thoughts not our
thoughts. God’s standards are not our standards. The readings of
this Sunday, especially the Gospel, invite us to reflect on God’s
generous love, mercy and justice for all people without exception.
That is God’s standard that will be applied at the end of times.
And this is the Good News of today.
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