INTRODUCTION
The readings of this 25th Sunday in Ordinary time Year A especially the Gospel are meant to help us see how narrow our sense of justice is and the need to learn from God who is so rich in generosity. God is just and merciful, but from concrete experience of life, we tend to understand that his mercy often seems to surpass his justice. He pardons us unconditionally even when we do not merit it and rewards us generously by offering us salvation through the death of his only Son.
The first reading puts us on our guard against the tendency of trying to pull God down to our level, with the pretence that his thoughts are like ours. But his thoughts are as far from ours as heaven is far from the earth. In the Second reading Paul, the pastor with a generous love for his sheep who though knowing the reality of death that awaits him, still desires the service of the gospel. Finally, the Gospel is a mirror of how God dispenses his justice in such a way that eludes our understanding.
FIRST READING: Isaiah: 55:6-9
In Isaiah 40-55 (Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah), the prophet prepares the people for the end of their captivity and their return to Jerusalem. He begins by saying, “Comfort, O Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (40:1-2). It is in this Deutero-Isaiah that four songs to the servant of Yahweh, the unidentified figure who was meant to mediate the relationship between God and his chosen people, and to bring justice to all nations (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13—53:12). While Isaiah retained the name of this Servant-Messiah, Christian hagiographers identified him to be Jesus since no one else fulfilled the prophesy as described by Isaiah except him.
These chapters of Isaiah 40-55 were pronounced to the people of Judah while they were still in Babylonian captivity promising them of an end to their enslavement and an imminent return to their homeland. In particular, the whole of the Chapter 55 from where our periscope was taken from are full of promises concerning both material and spiritual relief.The prophet made it clear to the exiled people that it was as a result of disobedience to the ordinances of Yahweh and their unfaithfulness to their Covenant with their God that brought about their present ordeal; thus their suffering on a foreign soil, the destruction of their cities, their Temple, and their monarchy (Land, Temple and kingship were three elements that formed the worldview of the chosen people and a symbol of their identity and unity as a people). The beauty of the prophesies is that they were not just series of blames and condemnations but more importantly, they were meant to announce anew God’s readiness to restore them back to whatever they had lost especially their relationship with their God.
Isaiah began by asking the people to reinstall their relationship with their God by truly searching him while He can be found. This brings to mind certain fundamental questions such as: Can’t God always be found? Isn’t God always near? The answer is very simple. God is never hidden from his people. On the contrary, it is their sins that pull them far away from their God, because his presence is incompatible with iniquities. Hence, the more man sins, the farther he moves away from his God and the wider the distance between him and his God. It is his inability to understand this distance created by his sins that makes him to see God as being hidden away from him.
God says, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” This is an assurance to the people who might have thought that it is impossible to find mercy in the sight of their God. Evidently, God does not forsake those who seek him (Psalm 9:10) because He is full of compassion and love.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than their ways, and his thoughts than their thoughts. By these words, the prophet made the people to understand that God’s thoughts and actions transcends whatever their mind could conceive. Thus, to understand it, they would have to multiply their spiritual understanding by infinity, and that will result to an impossible mathematical operation.
This prophesy is meant to reawaken our sense of conviction that God is always near to us even if we have to undergo tribulations and sorrows for whatever reason. He often allows these moments to reveal the complex nature of his ways which we cannot easily fathom. But for those who are able to look through their difficulties with faith will surely benefit from God’s promise of restoration at the hour of mercy.
SECOND READING: Philippians 1:20-24,27
St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was probably one of those letters written within the four walls of the prison in Rome (AD 61-63), because it is evident that the tone of his message sounds like one in deep suffering. Despite being the last Apostle, Paul was so filled with an unimaginable passion and interest to spreading the Good News. He invested propositionally the same passion he had for persecution into the mission.
Philippi was a very privileged city of Macedonia and the site of the first Christian. Although far from Rome, it was given the status of a Roman city. Its people didn’t have to pay taxes to Rome and the people dressed as Romans and spoke the language of Rome. But Paul had told them that once they became followers of Jesus, their true citizenship was not in Rome, but in Heaven. Their ways were not to be Roman ways, but the way of the Gospel. The Philippians had received the Gospel from Paul eagerly, and they supported him on his further missionary travels. So, he was very grateful, and his epistle gives them mature Pauline thought for a mature community, expressed in unusually personal terms.
Today’s passage demonstrates the true heart of a pastor addressing his sheep. Paul, though sounding as one that was already caught up on the verge of death (possibly awaiting in the prison for execution), made his audience to understand that both death and life are privileges for those who have built their life in Christ: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”. There is no doubt that from ordinary human point of view the apostle would prefer life to death. One might also say that Paul’s desire for death could have been occasioned by the level of suffering that he had gone through. He might have been so exhausted with life to the point that what he could think at that moment is death. But such affirmation risks denying the Christian sense of death and also fails to acknowledge the fact that martyrdom was so much desired at that time as a way of conforming fully to Christ. Thus, Paul saw death as a way of entering into greater unity with Christ. However, being a good pastor who desires to be with his flock always, he also opted to live so that he could continue his work of spreading the gospel. Paul concludes his message by affirming the most important thing which is the fact that life and death do not really matter. What truly matters most is to live ones life in the image of Christ. This is the central message of the apostle. By this he makes us to understand that we should neither be worried about life nor death because none of them depends on us, and in any case no matter how we desire to live, we shall surely die. In other words, life and death are given realities, but faith in God is not a given. It has to be worked for. Thus, the joy of living and dying depends on how far ones life is in conformity with Christ, since our being Christians means accepting God’s word and living it out daily in every condition. It will surely put us into the ‘prison’ of many problems. But Paul makes us to understand that even then, our hearts will be at peace because the life of the Gospel is the life glory that will surpass our suffering at the end of time.
GOSPEL: Matthew 20:1-16
The parable in today’s Gospel is known as “the Parable of Workers in the Vineyard” or “the Parable of the Generous Landlord.” Biblical scholar Daniel Harrington calls this “The Parable of the Good Employer” because the parable was probably addressed to Jesus’ opponents who criticized him for preaching the Good News of the Kingdom to tax collectors and sinners. This remarkable and rather startling parable is found only in Matthew. It reminds us that although God owes us nothing, yet He gives abundantly what each person really needs.
Jesus said: The Kingdom of Heaven, is like householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard:
THE FIRST GROUP began their work at 6 AM with an agreed wage of a denarius (a denarius is a small silver Roman coin roughly equal in value to the Greek drachma, another common silver coin) which was the usual daily wage in time of Jesus. It is a wage calculated to be enough for a man and his household for a day.
THE SECOND GROUP was hired at the third hour which is 9 AM. He told them, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you. So they went” (v. 4). On one side, it appears that the labourers had no choice and might have found themselves at the mercy of the field owner. So they never bothered to agree on any wage. Possibly it was not necessary since the daily wages were calculated based on the number of hours of labour. They might have presumed that he will pay them three-fourths of a denarius. On the other side, it does appear that the focus of the field owner seems to be on the need of the labourers rather than on the urgency of the harvest.
THE THIRD GROUP was recruited at the sixth and ninth hours respectively. In the original calculation, the sixth and the ninth hour correspond to Noon and 3 PM. They also quickly went into his field without bargaining.
FINALLY, he went out at the eleventh hour (5 PM) and still found another group standing without work. These were running out of time because soon there will be sundown (6 PM), and the work for the day will be closed. One could say that standing and waiting for an hour labour simply means that they were in serious need. They needed to work even though by calculation their wage will not be enough to take care of them and their household.
And one might also wonder why such a strange way of recruiting adopted by the field owner. Why did he have to move to and fro in a continuous frequency? Why didn’t he make a once and for all recruitment? Such a continuous movement is important for us to understand the meaning of the parable. It shows the fact that everyone has the right to work in a human society irrespective of his level and social status. And work has no stop. It is a continuous expression of what is intrinsic to the human nature.
Although from the cultural context of the parable, we understand that in the Palestine (just like many other places), the grapes ripened towards the end of September. It was the monsoon time of heavy rains. If the harvest were not finished before the rains started, the crop would be ruined. Hence, the vineyard owners recruited everyone willing to work (Fr Anthony Kadavil). And the fact that some of them stood around until 5 PM shows how desperately they needed to work in order to sustain their needs.
THE DRAMA AT THE HOUR OF PAYMENT
“When evening had come” (v. 8a). The books of the Law, Torah (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:15) insist that the laborer be paid at the dusk of the day. The daily wage at the time was one denarius or a drachma which corresponds to twelve hours of work (6 AM to 6 PM). The owner of the field made a shocking payment that goes against human sense of justice and logic of reasoning. The logic of men is, “He who works more deserves more”. The all-day hired men did not hesitate to react over the action of the field owner. But it is good to note that their complaint was not because they should have received more money. It was simply because, “These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” (v. 12). It goes a long way to show how humans would always desire that others remain at their level; a sense of the highly privileged and the less privileged, and the superior-inferior mentality.
But the response of the field owner shows the difference between God’s justice and the justice of men: “…I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denerous?…I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you grudge my generosity? God’s justice is not a justice of giving to everyone what is due for him. From the optic of what one deserves, those who worked for one hour should have been paid eleven times lesser than the first. To do such simply means that what they receive will not be able to sustain them and their family for the day. But God’s justice is a charity-justice. He does not provide according to what is due, but according to the needs of his people. The scenario also demonstrates that God loves everyone equally because all are his children. It further means that in the kingdom of God, there are no privileged positions. It doesn’t matter when one comes into the faith; a day-old Christian enjoys the same privilege with one who has lived the Christian faith all through his life.
LIFE MESSAGE
1. PEOPLE OF THE MARKET PLACE
The parable makes us to understand that God takes the initiative to call. He calls whenever He wants and to whoever He sees standing ready. He calls us into his service. Before our coming into the faith, we were like those standing in the market-place, and until one is called into the service of God, he will remain all the day idle: a sinful state. The market-place is the world, and from that we are called into the faith in the Church (God’s field of harvest of souls). We must be ready to come out from the market-place. It doesn’t matter when one gets into the faith. What matters is the readiness to answer the call because after all the reward does not change. It is the same for whoever was there before us.
2. EVERYONE HAS AN HOUR OF GRACE
The parable equally unveils a truth that we need to hear when we think that others have made it first before us. Listen, the fact that others have made it first in life does not mean you are meant to remain behind. Jesus demonstrates that everyone has his own hour of grace. It doesn’t matter who started first, because the 11th hour is the hour of grace. It is available for everyone, though it is not everyone who must gain it. It is meant for those who are ready to persevere. You have been standing all day long, for weeks, for months and for years waiting for divine visitation, and it seems God is nowhere to be found in your life and situation. You have made all possible human efforts to better your living condition, but nothing seems to be working out, yet you keep standing on the ground of faith. Sometimes it seems your days are gradually closing because of no blink of hope. People might have even tried to discourage your faith and to suggest wrong but easy way to pull you out of your ugly condition. Maybe you are still considering of giving it a trial because it is already the 10th hour and yet God who claims to be a faithful God is nowhere to be found. It is quite soul-killing to continue to wait and wonder and hope. But listen, if you think that you have waited till the 10th hour, have you also tried the 11th hour? You must keep standing where you are so that God can notice you. Do not be discouraged. Remember the last men in the parable; they had one hour left for the day to come to a close, yet they kept standing even with a blinking hope. Our God is still at work. He will still come when it seems there is no way out, and if you persevere you will hear him say, “why are you still standing there all day? Come into my vineyard.” Mary and Martha thought that they had exhausted their hours of hope (after Lazarus had spent four days in the tomb) but little did they know that the 11th hour never expires. It is a divine hour. It is the highest point of God’s revelation to those who feel they have lost it in life. Sometimes, God needs our tears in order to bless us with abundance of laughter that will make us to look back and say, yes I cried but it all ended up in joy.
3 GRUMBLING OVER GOD’S BLESSING UPON OTHERS
What really bothers us in the parable is God’s equal rewarding of latecomers and newcomers. We are tempted to ask the question “Is it fair that we, the hard-working Christians, are going to be treated like these workers? Is the man who lives a life of sin but who converts on his deathbed going to get the same reward that we receive? Surely we must warrant at least a higher ranking in heaven on a cloud with the Apostle Paul or Moses or one of the saints!” But the parable tells us that our Heavenly reward is not something we can “earn” because it is a free gift from God Who has made His rewards available to all who choose to receive His Gift of Faith in Christ Jesus. 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. (Fr. Anthony Kadavil). Many Christians are worse than those we consider pagans. We have wicked members of the Church ranging from the authority to the least. How often have we blocked the opportunities meant for others in our public offices and the places where we are meant to serve others. Many of us in the Church find it difficult to appreciate the gift God has given to a brother or a sister. We rather criticize them instead of supporting them to build our faith communities. When wickedness grows seeds, then it is easy to see a brother or sister with the gift of healing or prophesy as, ‘Those charismatic! They are not Catholics!’. When a sister sings well we see her as one who likes showing herself to gain public attention. When someone tries to live differently, not dressing in an indecent way and not going in the company of ‘fun seeking friends’ we see him or her as a pretender. And sometimes we cook up stories to paint their image black. You know that you cannot lead a prayer group or be at the helm of other activities in the Church, yet you criticize those who always put up the courage to do it. You always find fault in the leaders, and grumble and gossip about their style of leadership. But the good news is that when we spend time grumbling and criticizing others called to service by God (criticizing is different from fraternal correction of the fault of others), we must be sure that we are grumbling against God’s generosity. And today, Jesus made us to understand that the more we grumble over others, the more God maintains his decision about the gift He has given them. He cannot change it because of our bitterness. Let us learn to absorb others and rejoice with them when God blesses them with his generosity. And let us discard the spirit of antagonism when people share the same privilege with us.
PRAYER
O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. For you live and reign with the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
