XXV- Sunday in Ordinary Time

XXV SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Isaiah 55: 6-9; Philippians 1: 20-24; Matthew 20: 1-16
Imagine there are four houses on your street. Yours is valued at $400,000. The house next to you, at $300,000, The third, at $200,000. The last at $100,000. One day a realtor offers you $500,000 in cash for your house. You are delighted and you sell it. The next day you learn that the other three homeowners on your street got the same price by the same buyer that you did. How would you feel about their getting the same price even though their homes were not nearly a good as yours ?. The parable of the vineyard workers offends our sense of fairness. Why should everyone get equal pay for unequal work?

When the apples ripened, Tina, would sit all her seven children down, with pans and paring knives until the mountain of fruit is reduced to neat rows of filled canning jars. She never bothered keeping track of how many each one did, though the younger ones undoubtedly proved more of a nuisance than a help: cut fingers, squabbles over who got which pan etc. But when the job was done, the reward for everyone may be the same: sweet apple pie. A family understands it operates under a different set of norms than a courtroom. God’s grace does not come to us depending on the amount of good works we do, but according to our need. If your six-year-old child misbehaved, you would not call the police, you would not subject her to the rigor of the law; your correction of her would be gentle and proportioned to her age - in other words it would be merciful. So is God’s mercy too.

In today's gospel we hear of a harvest in which some workers put in more work than others. When pay time comes, they are all treated equally and the early birds among them begin to complain and grumble. Why do the workers in the vineyard complain and grumble whereas the workers in the family do not? The answer is simple. One group of workers is made up of family members and the other of unrelated individuals drawn from the wider society. The norms of behavior, of contribution and reward, in a family are different from those in the wider society. The big question that the parable poses to us in the church today is, "Do we see ourselves as family with a common purpose or do we see ourselves as a bunch of individuals, each with their own agenda? We call ourselves brothers and sisters. Why then do we often see and treat one another as rivals and competitors?
For the early-bird workers who ended up being reprimanded by the landowner it was all a business affair. Their working in the vineyard was preceded by a well spelt-out contract regarding their wages: a full day's work for a full day's pay. The latecomers were less legalistic in their approach. They took the job trusting in the landowner's word of honor. "He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went" (Matt 20:4). In fact, those employed in the sixth, ninth and eleventh hours were told nothing whatsoever about payment. There is no employer-employee contract here. Everything is based on trust.

This parable is also a warning to us. We, cradle Catholics, belong to the kingdom of God. We feel we are entitled to more privileges and rewards than others, who have entered the Church recently. This wage-oriented attitude towards God is seen in our lives. We claim we have heard more masses, attended more novenas, visited more shrines and said more prayers, so God must be more generous to us. The result is that wage-oriented persons quit God and leave the Church, because God did not give them the wages and rewards they thought they deserved. God is love, and a lasting friendship with Him has to be based on love. God is like the compassionate landowner, who gave a day’s wage even to the man who worked for an hour. It was no fault of the worker that he was not employed till 5 in the evening. God also welcomes and rewards with a denarius, His heaven; the one who dies full of years and another who dies in the prime of life, and even those who turn to God at the hour of their death.

We need to follow God’s example and show grace to our neighbor. When someone else is more successful than we are, let us assume he needs it. When someone who does wrong fails to get caught, let us remember the many times we have done wrong and gotten off free. We must not wish pain on people for the sake of fairness. We become envious of others because of our lack of generosity of heart. Envy should have no place in our lives. We cannot control the way God blesses others.
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. If my ways of thinking and judging are truly far from the Lord's way, then I must have some adjusting to do! Perhaps I need to work harder in the areas of forgiveness, mercy, and generosity, to mention a few. St. Paul urges the Philippians today to conduct themselves in a way that is "worthy of the gospel of Christ."

Let us allow this parable to break open the narrowness of our own imagination and expectations. The Lord is good to all, compassionate to every creature (Ps 145:9). God is more than just to us; God is generous. If God were strictly just to us we would all be in a bad shape. Our hope lies in the fact that God is also merciful. In His sight the first may be last and the last, first. A repentant thief may enter heaven first than a righteous man. The repentant prodigal may be more close the heart of the Father than an obedient home staying older son.

Our call to God’s vineyard is a free gift from God for which we can never be sufficiently thankful. All our talents and blessings are freely given by God.
Jesus is the volcano of generosity. There is no better example and proof of this extraordinary generosity than the Eucharist, where he allows himself to be handled by him. During this Eucharist let’s pour out our hearts in gratitude for God’s generosity.