Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16
For the kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After
agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his
vineyard. When
he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and
he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is
right.’ So they went. When
he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And
about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to
them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They
said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into
the vineyard.’ When
evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers
and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When
those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily
wage. Now when the first came, they thought
they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And
when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have
borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But
he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree
with me for the usual daily wage? Take
what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to
you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So
the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Reflections: Mother Hope gave an illuminating reflection on
this parable. We usually focus, she said, on the workers—their all too easily
understandable envy, the unfairness of the situation.
Imagine yourself, for example, as a
worker nobody wanted. The able-bodied work all day, certain that they can feel
their families for another day, but you wonder if your family will even eat
tonight. Imagine what means when the landowner comes for you, as well. Or maybe
you’re the early worker, bearing the heat of the day. How easy—how natural—to resent
it when people get something we think they don’t deserve (especially if we
worked hard for the same thing).
But Mother Hope suggested that the heart of the
parable may not be the laborers, but the landowner. He offers a fair contract
for a day’s work—a mutually profitable arrangement. But this landowner also reaches
out to those who have little to offer in return; this landowner includes everyone—to
his own cost. Now here’s a model of God. But perhaps it’s also a model for us, a
glimpse into the Kingdom of God to which we are invited, and to which we are
called to invite others.
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