Why are we reluctant to share the truly good things in life?  

• My friend Tom Ryan has a little grandson named Quentin. When his little brother Leo was born, Quentin looked at his mom and said, “Who is his mommy?” referring to Leo.

• Our parents had to urge us not to fight over toys, rooms and whatever else caused us to clash with our siblings.

Why are we reluctant to share?

The Parable of the Vineyard

The parable of the vineyard really starts the chapter before with the story of the Rich Young Man. Mt. 19:16ff.  In that parable, a rich young man asked, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus responded, “Why ask me about the good, there is only one that is good.” Then Our Lord talked about observing the commandments. The young man said, “I have observed all of these.” Jesus then said that there was “one more thing that was required. “

“If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mt. 19:21

The young man walked away sad, because as scripture said, “he had many possessions.” He was reluctant to share. Then the apostles said to Jesus,

 
“We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Mt. 19:27

 
Then Jesus told the parable we listened to today.
 
The parable begins, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…’  Jesus speaks of the nature of God’s love, a love unlike human love. The owner of the vineyard is unfair in our eyes and it doesn’t help when the owner says that he can use his money as he pleases. What is being discussed is not in fact money, but God’s love. The human problem of wanting to be at the center of love. The apostles have given up so much, shouldn’t they deserve more?

The Weight of my Neighbor’s Glory

Parents are often concerned about their children, whether or not they will follow the faith or drift away. Parents have so much invested in their family the concern is understandable. Are we as concerned for the faith of the person who lives next door to us as we are for our children? For St. Paul, for instance, was terribly concerned about bringing his neighbor to the love of Christ. Phil 1:20
 
We ought to be concerned about the evangelization of others. We recommend a nice restaurant to people we barely know. But telling someone how much we love Our Lord, the Catholic faith and our parish can be more difficult. We don’t refuse to recommend a nice restaurant we like because we are not great cooks. A good question to ask is why we hesitate to invite someone to consider the faith? As children we had to learn to share mom and dad’s love with our brothers and sisters. We also need to learn to share the Father’s love with our neighbor.

A good place to start

A good place to start in evangelization is prayer. I am promoting a parish novena to St. Therese for evangelization. As a child, she struggled with sharing love. A novena is nine days of prayer. You can join in any time. I have been sending it out since yesterday morning. I am hoping that our parish will join in prayer for the evangelization of our community and for our own personal needs. If you receive that novena in your email, consider praying for the evangelization of your own neighborhood and friends. If you didn’t receive that email, drop me a line and I will put you on our list. Share God’s love. Pray and be prepared for the surprise God has in store for us.

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