CHRIST THE KING: Ez 34:11-12, 15-17; I Cor 15:20-26, 28; Mt 25:31-46

Polycarp, the second century bishop of Smyrna, was arrested and brought before the Roman authorities. He was told if he cursed Christ, he would be released. He replied, “Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my King, Jesus Christ Who saved me?” The Roman officer replied, “Unless you change your mind, I will have you burnt.” But Polycarp said, “You threaten a fire that burns for an hour, and after a while is quenched; for you are ignorant of the judgment to come and of everlasting punishment reserved for the ungodly. Do what you wish.”

 

Jesus makes an unambiguous claim to universal authority. He doesn't say he is one wise man among many, one philosopher among many, or one prophet among many. He tells us that all the nations of the world will come before him to be judged; all the angels of heaven make up his royal court; he holds in his hands the eternal destiny of every man and woman of all time.

 According to Islamic teaching, one of Allah’s names include the title “the Just Judge”. The Quran itself testifies that there is no other judge besides Allah, and also proclaims that judgment belongs entirely and solely to Allah. However, Muhammad told his followers that Jesus would return from heaven to reign on the earth as a just ruler and fair judge. It is written: “One of the signs of the last Hour will be the appearance of `Isa son of Maryam before the Day of Resurrection.” 

Though Muslims do not accept Jesus as the son of God he is accepted as the final judge, which is really absurd. It is interesting to note that, neither Muhammad, nor any other prophet will come as the final judge but Jesus who will come to judge. Jesus did not die on the cross according to Islam but God took him up into heaven. Why would God do this to Jesus and send him a second time to act as the judge, a prerogative attributed only to Allah? Wonder why wouldn’t any Muslim of common sense question this to himself.

 

In most of the Messianic prophecies given in the Old Testament books of Samuel, Micah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Christ the Messiah is represented as a King.  Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Micah announced His coming as King. “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrata, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:1).  Daniel presents “One coming like a son of man … to him was given dominion and Glory and Kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away and his Kingship is one that shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:3-14).

The Kingdom of God is the central teaching of Jesus throughout the Gospels. The word Kingdom appears more than any other word throughout the four Gospels. Jesus begins His public ministry by preaching the Kingdom. “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:14).

The New Testament tells us that Jesus is the long-awaited King of the Jews.  In the account of the Annunciation, (Lk1:32-33), we read: “The Lord God will make him a King, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the King of the descendants of Jacob forever and his Kingdom will never end.”  The Magi from the Far East came to Jerusalem and asked the question: (Mt 2:2) “Where is the baby born to be the King of the Jews?  (When Pilate asked the question: (Jn 18:33) “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus, in the course of their conversation, made his assertion, “You say that I am a King.  For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the Truth. Everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to My Voice” (John 18:37). 

One of the reasons we celebrate this great Solemnity of Christ the King at the end of the liturgical year is to remind us that Jesus Christ is the end of our lives. He is our salvation and he is the Lord of Lords; he alone is the Holy One and the Most High, as we just proclaimed in the Gloria. 

Jesus Christ still lives as King in thousands of human hearts all over the world.  The cross is his throne and the Sermon on the Mount is his rule of law.  His citizens need obey only one law: “Love others as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  His love is selfless, sacrificial, kind, compassionate, forgiving, and unconditional.  That is why the Preface in today’s Mass describes Jesus’ Kingdom as “a Kingdom of truth and life, a Kingdom of holiness and grace, a Kingdom of justice, love, and peace.”  He is a King with a saving and liberating mission: to free mankind from all types of bondage, so that we may live peacefully and happily on earth and inherit Eternal Life in Heaven. 

 

Today especially, before we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, let us put more meaning than usual into the words that sum up every Christian's fundamental mission and deepest desire:

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

 

 

OT 33 [A] Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; I Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30

Back in the 1940’s Clarence Jordon founded a farm in Americus, Georgia, and called it Koinonia [Christian Fellowship, Communion with God and with Fellow-Christians] Farm. Koinonia was a community of poor whites and blacks who cooperated in earning a living. The integrated status of this community bothered many local citizens. They tried everything possible to wreck Koinonia. They boycotted its farm products, and slashed the workers’ tires when they came to town. Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan decided to get rid of Koinonia Farms. One night they came and burned every building except Dr. Jordon’s home. They chased off all of the families except for the Jordons and one black family. The next day a local newspaper reporter came to the farm to see what remained. The rubble was still smoldering. But Clarence Jordon was busy planting and hoeing. With a haughty spirit, the reporter said to Dr. Jordon, “Well, you got two of those Ph.D. s and you’ve put fourteen years into this farm, and there’s nothing left to show for it. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?” Clarence stopped hoeing, turned toward the reporter with his penetrating eyes, and said quietly but firmly, “Sir, I don’t think you understand us Christians. What we are about is not success; what we are about is faithfulness.” In order to be faithful, we must be willing to take risks for that One who dared to march into the very jaws of Hell for us.

 

The main theme of the three readings is an invitation to live in such a way that we make the best use of the talents God has given us, so that at the hour of our death Our Lord will say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant! Come and share the joy of your master” Matthew 25:21). 

 

This parable has a number of messages for us. First of all it tells us that God gives man differing gifts. One man received five talents, another two, and another one. It is not a man’s talent which matters; what matters is how he uses it.  God never demands from a man ability which he has not got.

The parable expresses that men are not equal in talent; but men can be equal in effort. It is quite remarkable that the man simply entrusted the talents to the servants. He did not tell them what to do with them. Neither did he tell them that he would demand them back on his return. The servants drew conclusions for themselves. Two of them decided to take risk and put them to use. While the third decided to play safe, burying it.

As the man expected his servants to be fruitful we are also expected to be fruitful. We are also expected to appreciate all of the gifts that we have received, not only appreciate them but also use them to their greatest potential.

There are three steps we must follow in order to invest our gifts well - from a supernatural perspective.

First, we must identify what our gift is.

We should always thank God for all countless blessings, but we should also reflect on the one or two strong characteristics, traits, or talents that God has given us personally.

What type of thing do you enjoy most?

What type of activity has always made you excited?

What personality characteristic have people always complimented you on?

What have you always dreamed of doing but were afraid to get started on?

The second step is to get right with God and stay that way. The third servant left his life-mission unfulfilled because he didn't have a good relationship with his master. He judged him to be a tough master who demanded back what he had not given.

 

Our lame excuses invite punishment: The third servant decided to avoid risk-taking and showed too much caution with his talent.. His excuse was that, after all, he had not been given explicit orders about how to do his investing. Besides, any type of business was risky, and the Master might hold him accountable for any loss. He probably knew the long-standing rabbinic teaching that anyone who buries money that has been put into his care is no longer liable for its safety. Through this description of a lazy servant, Jesus teaches us that that there is no “safe” position in life. Christian living is strenuous business involving occasional risk-taking. God expects us to use our every talent for personal growth, and for bearing witness to the Goodness of God to all whom we encounter. As Pope St. John XXIII said, “We were not put on earth to guard a museum, but to produce new spiritual wealth from the talents God has placed under our stewardship.

 

We need to “trade” with our talent of Christian Faith: All of us in the Church today have received at least one talent. We have received the gift of Faith. Our responsibility as men and women of Faith is not just to preserve and “keep” the Faith. We need to work with it. We need to offer it to the men and women of our times. Unless we do this, we stand in danger of losing the Faith just as the third servant lost his talent. The way to preserve the Faith, or any other talent that God has given us, is to put it to work and help it bear fruit.

 

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, let's promise that starting this week, we will go out and courageously invest our God-given gifts.

 

OT XXXII [A]: Wis 6:12-16; I Thes 4:13-18; Mt 25:1-13

In April 1988 the evening news reported the sad story of a photographer who was also a skydiver.  He had jumped from a plane along with several other skydivers and filmed the group as they individually dove out of the plane and opened their parachutes.  As the video was being shown of each member of the crew jumping out and then pulling their rip cord so that their parachute opened to the wind, the final skydiver opened his chute and then the picture went out of control.  The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without a parachute.  It was not until he reached for the ripcord that he realized he was in free fall, taking pictures without a parachute.  Tragically he was unprepared for the jump.  It did not matter how many times he had done it before or what skill he had.  By forgetting the parachute, he made a foolish and deadly mistake.  Nothing could save him, because his Faith was in a parachute which he had never taken the trouble to buckle on.  It is a story not unlike the parable which Jesus tells about the foolish bridesmaids forgetting to bring something very important and necessary.

 

Through this parable Jesus emphasizes the fact that each and every one of us should be prepared, stay awake, because we do not know the day or the hour when we will be summoned to answer before the Lord God.

In Jewish custom when a couple married, they did not go away; they stayed at home; for a week they kept open house; they were treated, and even addressed, as prince and princess; it was the gladdest week in all their lives. To the festivities of that week their chosen friends were admitted. The foolish virgins missed this chance, because they were unprepared.

At first glance we think the wise virgins are mean, maybe selfish.  But that’s not the case.  Their role in the wedding feast, according to customs of the time, was to welcome the newlywed couple to the bridegroom’s home after the wedding.  That was their responsibility.  To give away their oil would be to shirk their responsibility: there was simply not enough oil for ten lamps.  For us to be unfaithful to Christ and his Church – no matter under what pretext – would be equally irresponsible

 

This parable warns us that there are certain things which cannot be obtained at the last minute. It is far too late for a student to be preparing for the examination on the last day. It is too far late for a man to acquire a skill, or a character, when some task offers itself to him. When we are prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, we have nothing to fear.

The second message that the parable teaches is that there are certain things which cannot be borrowed.  The foolish virgins found it impossible to borrow oil, when they discovered they needed it. A man cannot borrow a character; he must acquire it. A man cannot borrow his relationship with his neighbours; he must develop it. A man cannot borrow his relationship with God, he must cherish it. Hence, it is the duty of parents and elders to help the growing younger generation to acquire the noble values came down to them from their forefathers.

 

Christ himself sums up the meaning of his parable: “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  It’s so easy to forget this.  We go on living as if we think this earthly life will go on forever.  Nothing is further from the truth. Death accompanies us each step of the way and could come upon us at any time.  

It is so ironical that the wedding which was such a well prepared and long awaited event, had these five virgins who were so unprepared and so unequipped for the grand moment. The story of these five virgins who were unprepared could well be our own stories too.

 

In the Gospel of Luke w12:35 WE READ: Keep your lamps lit. To keep our lamps lit.. it’s the reminder and challenge of the gospel to all of us.

At our baptism, we all have received the Light of Christ. This light, is not just to be preserved, but is to be nurtured and fostered daily. But we live in a world when there are many a winds seeking to put off this light in us. We live in a world where there is a strong engulfing of the darkness trying to drown the light in us.

Let’s examine our own lives… Am I allowing the wind.. of losing the focus from God. To put off the light in us?

… of being focused on our own selfish interests to put off the light in us?

.. of false principles and ideologies to put off the light in us?

As the saying goes, “We can’t prevent birds from flying over our heads, but we can certainly prevent them from laying a nest on our heads. We cannot prevent these winds to rage and hit our lives… but we can certainly prevent them from blowing off the Light of Christ in us.

The Lord has given us everything we need to keep the vigil all through our lives, so we should stock well our lamps and press on with fidelity. That way we can be like the wise virgins, and march on to victory.

As we continue with this Mass, let’s renew our commitment to Christ and promise him to do whatever it takes to wake ourselves up and refill our lamps. After all, “we know neither the day nor the hour.” 

 

ALL SAINTS: Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12a

 

A story is told of a traveling portrait painter who stopped in a small village hoping to get some business. The town drunk — ragged, dirty and unshaved — came along. He wanted his portrait done and the artist complied. He worked painstakingly for a long time, painting not what he saw but what he envisioned beneath that disheveled exterior. Finally, he presented the painting to his customer. “That’s not me,” he shouted. The artist gently laid his hand on the man’s shoulder and replied, “But that’s the man you could be.” Today’s feast reminds us that we all can become saints.

 

All baptized Christians who have died and are now with God in glory are considered saints. All Saints Day is a day on which we thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in His holiness and Heavenly glory as a reward for their Faith. In fact, we celebrate the feast of each canonized saint on a particular day of the year. But there are countless other saints and martyrs, men, women and children united with God in Heavenly glory, whose feasts we do not celebrate. Among these would be our own parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters who were heroic women and men of Faith. All Saints Day is intended to honor their memory. Hence, today’s feast can be called the feast of the Unknown Saint, in line with the tradition of the “Unknown Soldier.”

 

Today, the Church reminds us that God’s call for holiness is universal and that all of us are called to live in His love and to make His love real in the lives of those around us. Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. We show holiness when we live lives of integrity and truth, that is, wholesome and integrated lives in which we are close to others while being close to God.

 

This feast offers a challenge to each one of us: anybody can, with the grace of God, become a saint, regardless of his or her age, lifestyle or living conditions. St. Augustine accepted this challenge when he asked the question: “If he and she can become saints, why can’t I?”

St. Catherine of Siena was right: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”  

 

In today’s Gospel (Mt 5: 1-12), the Church reminds us that all the saints whose feasts we celebrate today walked the hard and narrow path of the Beatitudes to arrive at their Heavenly bliss. As Pope benedict remarks, “ the blessed par excellence is only Jesus. He is, in fact, the true poor in spirit, the one afflicted, the meek one, the one hungering and thirsting for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemaker. He is the one persecuted for the sake of justice.” The Beatitudes are God’s commandments expressed in positive terms.

 

Thomas Merton was one of the most influential American Catholic authors of the twentieth century. Shortly after he was converted to Catholicism in the late 1930s, Thomas Merton was walking down the streets of New York with a friend, Robert Lax. Lax was Jewish, and he asked Thomas what he wanted to be, now that he was Catholic. “I don’t know.” Merton replied, adding simply that he wanted to be a good Catholic. Lax stopped him in his tracks. “What you should say,” he told him, “is that you want to be a saint!” Merton was dumbfounded. “How do you expect me to be a saint?” Merton asked him. Lax said: “All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don’t you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you consent to let him do it? All you have is to desire it.” Thomas Merton knew his friend was right.

The feast gives us an occasion to thank God for having invited so many of our ancestors to join the company of the saints. May our reflection on the heroic lives of the saints and the imitation of their lifestyle enable us to hear from our Lord the words of grand welcome to eternal bliss: “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joys of your master” (Mt 25:21).

 

OT 30 [A]: Ex 22:20-26; I Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40

 

A man attending a crowded Church service refused to take his hat off when asked to do so by the ushers. The preacher was perturbed too, and after the service told the man that the Church was quite happy to have him as guest, and invited him to join the Church, but he explained the traditional decorum regarding men’s hats and said, “I hope you will conform to that practice in the future.” “Thank you,” said the man. “And thank you for taking time to talk to me. It was good of you to ask me to join the congregation. In fact, I joined it three years ago and have been coming regularly ever since, but today is the first day anyone ever paid attention to me. After being an unknown for three years, today, by simply keeping on my hat, I had the pleasure of talking to the ushers. And now I have a conversation with you, who have always appeared too busy to talk to me before!” –- What do we do to make strangers welcome? Are we too busy that we have no time to keep the greatest commandment? When we come together to worship we can express our love for God by worshipping him and also loving our neighbor which is the flip side of the coin of loving God.

The central theme of today’s readings is the greatest Commandment in the Bible, namely, to respond to God’s Infinite Love for us by loving Him, and to express that love in action by loving Him in our neighbor.

In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, there was a double tendency to expand the Mosaic Law into hundreds of rules and regulations and to condense the 613 precepts of the Torah into a single sentence or few sentences. (The Pharisees identified 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Two hundred forty-eight were positive (“thou shalt”) and three hundred sixty-five were negative (“thou shalt not”). Jesus’ answer teaches us that the most important commandment is to love God in loving others and to love others in loving God. In other words, we are to love God and express it by loving our neighbor because God lives in him or her. Jesus’ answer was very orthodox, and very traditional. “The summary of the law is not original with Jesus. Its two parts represent a combination of Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18.

The first verse that Jesus quoted was part of the Shema, the basic and essential creed of Judaism. This is the sentence with which every Jewish service still opens, and the first text which every Jewish child commits to memory.

Jesus combined the originally separate commandments and presented them as the essence of true religion. The uniqueness of Jesus’ response consisted in the fact that he understood the two laws as having equal value or importance. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength as our response to His Love for us means that we should place God’s will ahead of ours, seek the Lord’s will in all things, and make it paramount in our lives. There are several means by which we can express our love for God and our gratitude to Him for His blessings, acknowledging our total dependence on Him. We must keep God’s commandments, and offer daily prayers of thanksgiving, praise and petition. We also need to read and meditate on His word in the Bible and accept His invitation to join Him in the Mass and other liturgical functions when we can.

 

God’s will is that we should love everyone, seeing Him in our neighbor. Since every human being is the child of God and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, we are actually giving expression to our love of God by loving our neighbor as Jesus loves him or her. This means we need to help, support, encourage, forgive, and pray for everyone without discrimination based on color, race, gender, age, wealth, personal attractiveness, or social status. Forgiveness, too, is vital. We love others by refusing to hold a grudge for a wrong done to us. Even a rebuke can be an act of love, if it is done with the right heart.

Christian love is much more about what we decide to do than about what we happen to feel. Usually, we associate the word love with some pleasant feelings, intense and delightful emotions. But the word Jesus used means something much deeper. It is the word "agape" [AH-gah-pay], and it refers to the love that means desiring union with something that is good in itself. If we love ice cream, it means we love eating ice cream because it tastes good, we love becoming one with ice cream, entering into communion with ice cream. The communion is essential part of real love.

If we love a person, it means we love spending time with them, getting to know them, sharing the experiences of life with them.

 

Christian love for our neighbor requires seeing them the way God sees them, but we can only do that if our mind and heart are full of God's perspective, which happens through prayer. This is why the Catechism can say that "we live as we pray" (CCC #2752).

Today Jesus will pour his grace into our hearts once again in this Mass. As he does, let's beg him to teach all of us not only to understand these two great commandments, but to live them to the max.

 

OT XXVI [A] (Ez 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32)

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king?” “I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” “Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written, “The King learned to rule by being obedient.” Christ was obedient to the will of his Father unto death, even death on the cross. As his disciples, we, too, are called to be obedient to the will of God.

This passage from the gospel sets before us a picture of two very imperfect sets of people, of whom one set were none the less better than the other. Neither son in the story was the kind of son to bring full joy to his father. Both were unsatisfactory; but the one who in the end obeyed was incalculably better than the other.

 

The Gospel tells us that there are two very common classes of people in this world. First, there are the people whose profession is much better than their practice. They will promise anything. They make great protestations of piety and fidelity. They fight for the rights of the church. They collect together the down- trodden to fight for their rights. But, their practices lag behind. At least some of us fall into this category. Our charity; our compassion; our holy rites are only demonstrations without the element of sincerity. We sometimes profess their faith but never practice.

Second, there are those whose practice is far better than their profession. They are fond of doing kind and generous things, almost in secret. But the real good man is the man in whom profession and practice meet and match.

This parable teaches that promises can never take the place of performance, and fine words are not substitute for fine deeds. The world has many preachers, but it is still looking for performers; the world is keen to have a Florence Nightingale; a Gandhiji or a Mother Theresa.

 

It is common in today's world to find Catholics who openly disagree with core Catholic teaching. We all know people who say that they are Catholic, but who don't come to Mass on Sunday - they only come on Christmas and Easter, if they come at all.

We all have heard or read about politicians who say that they are ardent and practicing Catholics, but who publicly support laws that go directly against some of the most basic tenets of morality as taught by the Catholic Church.

We call ourselves practicing Catholics, and yet we spend more time working on our favorite hobbies than on our prayer life, and we spend more time becoming an expert in our profession than in our faith, and we tolerate in our own lives hidden habits of selfishness and sin while we criticize other people for their more visible faults.

If we think about it a little bit, we see very clearly that this contradiction between what we believe and how we live is not a good thing. It is like the second son in today's parable. He impressed his dad with fancy words and a good show of healthy obedience, but underneath the surface he was still living for his own self-centered gratification, not for the greater good of his mission in the Father's kingdom.

When we fall into that contradiction, it is no wonder that we don't grow in our experience of Christ's love and grace, and it is no wonder that we don't grow in wisdom, interior peace, and the deep Christian joy that we thirst for. Faith, if it's real, makes a real impact on our lives. When it doesn't, our spiritual growth is stunted.

The surest way to banish hypocrisy from our lives is to adopt as our personal motto the phrase that Jesus taught us in the Our Father: "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done." God's will is dependable and truthful, and when we make it our highest priority, we too become dependable and truthful. And unlike followers of some other religions, as Christians we have an objective standard for God's will that protects us from doing evil and calling it "the will of God."

God's commandments, the responsibilities of our state in life, and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit: this is the threefold path to a truthful, fulfilling life, free from the poison of hypocrisy.

Today let’s ask ourselves: Which son am I ? Do my actions indicate my obedience to God’s will? Am I ready to change my attitudes and behavior?

The challenge is to be like a third son: Jesus, who was always faithful. St. Paul reminds us “Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, who.. humbled himself, becoming obedient unto the point of death.

Today, let's make Christ's motto our motto: Thy Kingdom come, Lord, and thy will be done, in my life, just as it is in heaven.

 

 

OT XXV [A] Is 55:6-9; Phil 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt 20:1-16a

Today’s readings are all about the human sense of justice contrasted with the extravagant grace of a merciful and compassionate God. God rewards us, not in the measure of what we do, but according to our need and His good will.

 

God does not call everybody at the same time. Some are called early in life as the early labourers were called, having received their baptism as infants. Some were called as teenagers. Some were called during their married life and others, much later in life. And some are like the labourers who were called around five o'clock; their conversion took place at the last hour, like the thief on the cross.

The parable describes the kind of things that frequently happened at certain times in Palestine. The grape harvest ripened towards the end of September, and then closes on its heels the rains came. If the harvest was not gathered in before the rains broke, then it was ruined; and so to get the harvest in was a frantic race against time. Any worker was welcome, even if he could give only one hour to the work.

This story illustrates the difference between God’s perspective and ours.  Perhaps it disturbs our sense of fairness and justice. We think of equal rights for all, or an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Our sense of justice seems to favor the laborers who worked all day and expected a wage greater than that given to the latecomers.  Perhaps most people would sympathize with the workers who had worked longer and seemingly deserved more.  We can understand their complaint since, for most of us, salaries are linked to the number of hours of work. A skilled worker gets more than an unskilled worker. If workers have the same skills, the same hours of work and similar responsibilities, we expect them to get the same wages.

But God does not see matters in the same way that we do.  God thinks of justice in terms of people’s dignity and their right to a decent life. In other words, God’s perspective is that of the owner, who gave some of the laborers more than they earned.  God’s justice holds that the people who have come late have the same right to a living wage and decent life as those who have worked all day and, hence, all must be treated identically. We are laborers who have worked less than a full day.  If God treated us justly, none of us would be rewarded.  We have all been unfaithful to God in many ways; what we have earned from God is punishment.  However, because God is generous rather than just, we all receive a full day’s pay, even though we have not earned it. Jesus understood the value of all people, regardless of what the community thought of them.  He gave all people equal value.

God is like the sun, giving off heat and light to all people, the humble and grateful, and also the wicked and self-serving. It is not the amount of service given, but the love in which it is given which matters.’ Those who carry out the will of God with love and humility will be acceptable before the Lord. So, Jesus says, “The first will be the last and the last will be the first.”

 

Salvation comes to us by God’s grace and our cooperation with it, that is, by a blend of Faith and works. We are saved by receiving and using God’s gifts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. At the same time, we are all in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Our justification comes from the grace of God.

 

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 that person 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, nor rejoice in their miseries when God allows them to suffer.   We become envious of others because of our lack of generosity of heart.  Envy should have no place in our lives.  We cannot control, and dare not pass judgment on, the way God blesses others, only rejoice that He does so, just as He blesses us.

Our call to God’s vineyard is a free gift from Him for which we can never be sufficiently thankful. All our talents and blessings are freely given by God. Hence, we should express our gratitude to God by avoiding sins, by rendering loving service to others, by sharing our blessings with the needy, and by constant prayer, listening and talking to God at all times. The Holy mass is about giving thanks to God for his ineffable mercy and grace of salvation. Let’s thank him for giving us his blessings even when we do not deserve them. And let’s ask for a generous heart to appreciate and rejoice when others are blessed more than us.