25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr Dominic’s Homily
Matthew used to be a tax collector so he loves parables where Jesus uses finance in explaining to his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is like.
The parable of the vineyard-workers is not a good example of employment contracts. It makes no economic sense but this story is not one about suitable working conditions; it is about the way God orders things in his kingdom.
He paid those who worked for just one hour the same as those who came for the whole day. And then says “Are you jealous because I am generous?” I think we can all agree that it doesn’t sound fair!
But Jesus understands human nature well enough to realize that hard work needs rewarding. He would be the first to say that ‘a labourer deserves his wages’.
Jesus is using this story of prodigal and extraordinary generosity to help explain something of the grace and mercy of God towards us.
Bear in mind that nobody was cheated! Not a single worker was underpaid. The complaint of the workers who started early offered no evidence of wrongdoing. It was a complaint simply of envy and jealousy, not objective reality.
And so we should ask who do you see yourself as in this story? Most people identify themselves with the employees who put in a full day's work in the heat of the sun, rather than the add-ons at the end of the day. We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and we find the employer's strange behaviour hard to understand.
Yet think again. The reality is that actually we are all the latecomers.
None of us gets paid according to merit, because none of us can make sufficient reparation to God. Just imagine if God did really treat us fairly according to our behaviour. That would give us something to worry about.
The essence of this Gospel parable is found in the Isaiah passage: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways”
Why isn’t the land owner not more generous to those who worked longer?
We have to remember that Gods Wisdom is not man’s wisdom. God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness are all God's to give away as He sees fit.
We can perhaps find it hard to understand perhaps how someone who repents on his deathbed is admitted to heaven as much as those who have struggled and suffered all their lives for what is right.
But in love there is no calculation of duties, rights and obligations; there is only an open-handed giving without counting the cost.
A relationship of love can deepen over the years allowing a greater capacity to embrace God than perhaps one who comes to know him only at the last moment.
It’s not a matter of God giving a greater reward to the late comer, but of the person who has known God longer being more capable of receiving his love.
So the paradox of this parable is that we are actually all equal recipients of God's gifts. Yet because of our nature we are often envious and jealous when God's gifts are given equally to others.
When we work for the same purpose with the same focus we can forget our quarrels. Think of a lovely house you may know being on fire. Through the work of many people rushing to help - the house is saved.
Do you think that afterwards people argue over who deserves more credit according to what time they arrived? No, they are all happy that the house is saved.
The devil loves to distract us from what really matters so we can become preoccupied with trivia. We can waste time on worrying about things that don’t matter like money, position, materialism, comparing ourselves with others…
Look at Jesus on the cross. What money did he have? What goods, what position? It focuses our minds on what really matters: doing the work of God.
We mustn’t let the devil distract us from what matters and get us worked up about unnecessary things. God gives according to peoples need and not according to their greed.
We must see it as a privilege to work in the fathers Vineyard where what counts is not years of service, but diligence of heart.
Ultimately when it comes to our relationship with God it’s not really about the time that we put in. It’s more about the heart that we put into the time that God has given us.