GOSPEL: Mt 20:1-16
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JESUS told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
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The Gospel is full of paradoxes; it is enigmatic, problematic, and hard to understand. In the parable, God seems unfair. Imagine the last laborers, working for an hour, receive the same payment as the first laborers who have labored the whole day. What is the point of Jesus?
Jesus is talking to the Jews, who are the first to receive the promise given to Abraham and to the chosen people of God, in contrast to the Gentiles who are latecomers in hearing the Gospel. Yet, the latter become members of the new chosen people of God, the community of Christian-followers of Jesus Christ.
In fact, Jesus begins his parable, “The Kingdom of God is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.” At the end of the day, the landowner gives out the same wage for all. It looks unfair, but at the end of life, God gives out the same reward to those who have found him.
In many ways, we are all bystanders waiting for God’s call to come and be part of his heavenly Kingdom. Some are baptized early in life and given the privilege to become God’s children. Others are converted at a later stage in life when they encounter Jesus who invites them to come and work for him. Many saints are converted sinners.
One of them is St. Augustine, who wrote in Confessions, his autobiography, “You are great, Lord, and worthy of our highest praise; your power is great and there is no limit to your wisdom. Man, a tiny part of your creation, wishes to praise you. Though he bears about him his mortality, the evidence of his sin and the evidence that you resist the proud, yet this man, a tiny part of your creation, wishes to praise you. It is you who move man to delight in your praise. For you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
As the First Reading tells us, “Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked man his thoughts; let him turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
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SOURCE: “366 Days with the Lord 2020,” ST. PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
