25Th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah’s call to conversion in the First Reading speaks of God’s readiness to take back the sinner when he says My ways are not your ways; my thoughts not your thoughts. So often in the scriptures, God seems to have a totally different way of approaching things to most of us and we see that here. The prophet contrasts the way God judges with our human way of seeing things. So often, people are judged on past actions, but God sees beyond that. In the Second Reading we hear from St Pauls letter to the Philippians this letter was written about 57AD, while Paul was imprisoned. His courage in suffering ill treatment seems to have been a source of inspiration to many, for which he rejoices in today’s short reading. There is a hint that execution is a possibility but, alive or dead, he is confident that he is bearing witness to Christ. In another reading we hear that alive or dead we are the Lord’s.
In this weekend’s gospel the parable presents God as a landowner going out at five different times during the day to hire workers for his vineyard. As unskilled workers, they lived day to day at a subsistence level. In areas where such workers can get employment, they got together in a common area known to employers. The employers sought the workers out, hired them only for the day, and paid them the same night. Day laborers in the vineyard objected to the amount of pay the owner gave them as the first was paid exactly the same as the last one denarius. This tense image rode against the popular view of the Kingdom as a peaceful feast of the faithful in paradise. Jesus told this story to emphasize how the Kingdom differed from people’s ideas and expectations what people expected, and the actual kingdom of God were two very different things. According to Jesus, the faithful, even those who practiced faith all life long, did not earn the Kingdom. The Father gave his children the Kingdom as a gift. The pay issue scandalized Jesus’ followers the most, however. Imagine the most dedicated and hard-working people were paid the same as the others. And they were paid last! Beyond the question of money lie the question of social treatment. The owner treated those who worked for only an hour as he would treat his own family. Those hired at dawn were treated as mere workers. The owner gave greater honor to those who worked the least by paying them well and paying them first. The owner belittled those who worked all day long by paying them so little and paying them last. And, when the workers grumbled, the owner rebuked them in public.
If our ways of thinking and judging are truly far from the Lord’s way, then we have some work to do! Perhaps we need to work harder in the areas of forgiveness, mercy, and generosity, to think as God thinks requires openness and a broad vision, free of self-pity and selfish brooding. It takes gratitude. It means sitting down and reflecting, “What does God want me to do in this or that situation?” It takes courage and humility and grace to act this way. It helps if we just ask ourselves a simple question: What would Jesus do. The parable of the workers in the vineyard is the Lord’s call to all of us to share generously with all people what we meet and that means sharing our resources and our time. All of us share equally in the task, whether called early in the morning or late in the evening of the day, we are called to build up the kingdom of God in this unjust and often times hard world. When we focus upon the needs of others, we give ourselves for the Kingdom. What are we willing to give up for the Kingdom of God as we proclaim the good news in what we say and what we do as we remember the words of the psalm that the Lord is close to all who call on him.
Fullerton T 