The workers in the vineyard
Our Sunday Gospel is quite a long one as it is the beginning of a series of Parables that the Catholic Church wants to teach her flock. Back in those days, our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples in parables so they could understand what the Lord was telling them. But to his Apostles, our Lord Jesus Christ always told them how to interpret these parables.
In today’s gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches this parable to give us an idea of the ways of God and his sense of Justice, fairness and generosity. It is about the Workers in the Vineyard and you can read it in Matt.20: 1-16.
[Jesus told his disciples this parable:] 1”The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, “You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just. 5 So they went off, [And] he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
6 Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them. ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They answered him. ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ 8 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.’ 9 When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. 10 So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, 12 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.” 13 He said to them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? 15 [Or] am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous? 16 Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
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Our human minds or ways of thinking would look at this parable and ponder and think and then say that the Kingdom of heaven seems unfair. The owner of the vineyard hired workers early dawn and he kept hiring workers all the way to the afternoon, even when there was an hour left of work. He still hired workers…because no one hired them.
So when the day was done, the foreman called them all and the vineyard owner paid everyone exactly the same wage…from those who started at dawn and those who only worked for an hour. Yes if you considered that a worker is paid an hourly wage, then paying those who worked only for an hour the exact same wage as those who worked at the crack of dawn does seem very unfair.
But if you dig deeper into this story, you will notice that the vineyard owner hired the workers firstly because no one hired them. Most of those workers he hired were merely standing idle, hence they accepted to work in his vineyard in response to the vineyard owner’s act of kindness in hiring them. Of course those workers who worked the vineyard the longest time grumbled because they got the same wages as those who worked only for an hour. They forgot that the vineyard owner was merely being generous with his money and they had no right to grumble because this was the vineyard owner’s own money.
The lesson we can get from this parable is linked to our Catholic faith. Many of us are called…but few respond to the call of the Lord Jesus Christ to join him in his banquet. For those who responded immediately, their lives are already assured with God’s grace. But there will always be some of us who will not respond to the call of the Lord, however that person might just respond to the call of our Lord at the very last minute of his life.
There are those of us who when we are called to serve the Lord, respond almost instantaneously. But many do not respond at all, despite our prodding or inviting them to join our charismatic group. But I always say that God loves us so much, he will find ways to bring that lost sheep to his flock, even by giving that person some kind of terminal illness so that he would finally repent.
Many Catholics who refuse God’s invitation always look up to Dimas, the good thief…who at the very end of his life was given the privilege to be in paradise. When people do what Dimas did, we should not take it against that person, after all he repented and returned to the favor of God in the end.
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