Our Gospel passage for today is one of the most puzzling parables of Jesus. A lot of people really struggle with this parable; it bugs them. Jesus starts off his parable by saying; the workers are hired at different times of the day. He hires some people at the beginning of the day and they work in the hot sun for 8 hours, others he hires at noon, others at 3 and still others at the very end of the day. Then the moment comes to pay them and he pays those who had worked for only an hour; he pays them the full wage. Then those who were hired earlier think they were going to get more. But then they all get the same wages, they complain and the owner says “are you envious because I am generous?”
IT IS GRACE; EVERYTHING COMES TO US AS A GIFT FROM GOD
Many people consider Jesus’ story as unfair and unjust one, because it seems to favor the idler at the expense of the hard worker. This is a serious accusation. Injustice is an ugly thing. All of us have some experience of it. Injustice leaves a wound that takes a long time to heal. Jesus’ story is however not about injustice because no injustice is done in it. What then is Jesus’ parable about?
It is about generosity. That is the key phrase in the story.
“Are you envious because I am generous? It is about a generosity unlike anything we have ever known.
In order to understand and appreciate the story, we need to know what is going on it. Jesus audience knew exactly what he was getting at. The vineyard was the Kingdom of God. Those who had been working all day long were the Pharisees and the Jews in general. The 11
th hour people were sinners and Gentiles. Jesus was saying that God was offering the Kingdom to sinners and Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews. The Jews objected vigorously. They didn’t think it was fair; they thought they deserved preferential treatment. They assumed that God worked on merit system, you must earn your graces by hard work. And here was Jesus saying that God does not work on a merit system at all.
You would expect that people who have worked hard and risen from poverty to relative wealth would be compassionate towards those who haven’t made that journey. Yet the contrary seems to be generally the case. They tend to be rather harsh in their judgments of the poor and to resent any help given to the poor. Their attitude is “I had to work hard in order to make it. Nobody gave me anything for nothing. If I did it, why can’t they?”
If one is into worthiness, competition and rewards, this Gospel wouldn’t make much sense. Jesus parable makes little sense from the point of view of Strict Justice. But which of us would want to be treated by God according to Strict Justice? Do we not all stand more in need of his mercy and generosity than of his Justice? Jesus parable is not about justice; it is about God’s Mercy and Generosity. Everything comes to us as a gift from God. In the words of St. Paul “Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it. (I Cor 4:7)”.
WELCOMED, LOVED & FORGIVEN
I am presently doing some reading on parish administration, I am looking at what makes a parish successful. One of things that successful parishes have done is that they have put in place a very Welcoming team. Our parishes have to be a place where people feel welcome at all times. In one of the parishes in Mary Land on Easter Sunday a faithful Parishioner arrived for the 10:30am Mass as was her custom every week precisely at 10:25 am. The only problem was that the church was already full. She was invited to the overflow seating adjacent to the Church Sanctuary, but that was unacceptable to her. Tearing into an outburst at the top of her voice she screamed.
“I am here every week this is my Church, who are these people; they never come any other time of the year. Why don’t they leave” When her arguments failed to win her the seat she demanded, She proceeded to rip her offering envelope into little pieces and toss it into the air before storming out. My Dear Brother and Sisters, The parable of the vineyard-workers is no blueprint for labor relations, but it illustrates Jesus’ teaching about grace and mercy. There are consequences to be drawn. As Pope Francis eloquently writes in
The Joy of the Gospel (§114): “The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.”
Today’s liturgy calls us to rejoice that God is generous to a degree that far exceeds human generosity. Jesus was illustrating what we heard from our 1
st reading for today “God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. In order words God’s generosity utterly transcends human generosity. God deals with us in ways that are very different from the ways we normally deal with one another. The goodness and Generosity of God is a great comfort to us. But it is also a great challenge because we are called to imitate his generosity and goodness. We are called to make our ways of dealing with one another more like God’s way of dealing with us. Today I would like to invite you all to open your hearts to God’s Generosity, and when you have experienced it, let it serve as a model for our dealings with others.