The workers in the vineyard

Editor's Note: This column should have come out yesterday, Sept. 24. It is being printed late with the permission of the author. We apologize for the confusion.

It is the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today's gospel reading comes from Matt.20: 1-16 which is another parable that our Lord Jesus imparts to his disciples. It is the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.

20 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 "About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went.

"He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?' 7 "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'

8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' 9 "The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.

11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 'These who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'13 "But he answered one of them, 'I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

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In the gospel reading last Sept. 3rd taken from Matt.16: 21-27 the Lord Jesus Christ prophesied his coming passion and death in the hands of the Chief Priests and elders and that he will be raised again. When Peter heard this, he rebuked the Lord saying, "God forbid that this would happen to you Lord!" But Jesus replied to Peter saying, "Get behind me Satan, you are not thinking as God does, but as human beings do!" What the Lord Jesus Christ has been teaching us with those parables about how things are done in the Kingdom of heaven is very clear, that our human ways are far from the ways of God.

In today's gospel, the owner of the vineyard went out early to hire workers offering them denarii as the day's wages. Then at nine in the morning he went out again to hire more workers paying the same price. Then at noon, he once more hired workers to work in his vineyard. Then at three o'clock he hired more workers, then at five o'clock he hired workers.

Then evening came and the landowner ordered his foreman to bring all the workers to him and paid each of them a denarius for their work. The workers who worked longer hours grumbled and expected to be paid more than those who were hired only at five o'clock. But clearly the landowner hired those workers to be paid a denarius for their work.

In reply to those workers who grumbled, the landowner said, "'I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." Indeed the ways of God are not the ways of human beings!

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