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25th Sunday |
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Dear Preachers:
What businessperson would not find today’s parable intolerable? What about people who work for nonprofits, or church folk – hard-working, responsible people like us? Who wouldn’t find this parable unfair?
Do we side with the workers who were hired first, those who worked all day? They were hard workers, and they grumbled. Can you blame them? “These last ones have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the day’s burden and the heat!” Or, to put it more simply: “It’s not fair!”
How would you rewrite this story?
After all, we were taught to be hard workers and to expect fair pay for the work we do. Isn’t that the way we live? Isn’t that what we teach our children? Don’t hard-working students stand out in school and receive top grades? Don’t good workers receive better evaluations and promotions?
Maybe we should put our hands over our children’s ears when they hear this Gospel! Otherwise, all our lessons about fairness might go right out the window. So, how would we rewrite the story?
The foreman is charged by the landowner to, “Summon the workers and give them their pay.” These days, we might give the foreman a calculator. “Let’s see: a full day’s work – 100 percent pay. Nine hours – 75 percent. Three hours – 25 percent. And those who worked only one hour? Well, let’s give them 15 percent of a day’s wage. Just to be generous. After all, we are Christians, aren’t we?”
But think about those people out there waiting to be hired. Think of the day laborers who stand outside places like Home Depot, hoping that a pickup truck will arrive looking for workers. Those hired first could be proud. They were the strongest and most able-bodied. Being chosen was a lucky break. They worked hard and earned their day’s wage. They had families at home who depended on them.
So why did they grumble at the end when they saw that the last workers received the same pay? Didn’t they have any sympathy for those others who also had families depending on them? Didn’t those latecomers have the same desperate needs? And who were those hired last? The landowner asks them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” “All day”—waiting to be chosen.
Who doesn’t get hired right away? Who is left standing at the end of the day? Perhaps the elderly, the widows, the infirm, people with disabilities, injured workers, foreigners, or others who cannot compete with the strongest and healthiest. They may not be able to work as hard or as long as others, but they still need the money. They still have mouths to feed and families depending on them.
Do we recognize ourselves in those disgruntled workers?
We Americans have hard work and competition in our bones. We have learned to measure ourselves in relation to others: Who has more? Who does more? Whose clothes are the latest fashion? Whose computer is the newest model?
Mark Twain once said, “It is not what I don’t understand about the Bible that bothers me; it’s what I do understand.”
This is an easy parable to understand – and one of the most uncomfortable to hear. How often have we thanked God for our good fortune – for being born at this time, in this country, into our particular families; for our jobs, our homes, and the schools our children attend?
We express gratitude, but lurking behind that gratitude can be the conviction that we deserve what we have. After all, we are the all-day laborers. We have worked for it.
Mark Twain was right. Sometimes it is what we understand in the Bible that bothers us.
What kind of God emerges from this parable?
A persevering God—a God who goes out again and again, five times, and never gives up inviting people into the vineyard.
A generous God—a God whose generosity goes beyond our sense of fairness and justice. A universal God – a God who calls everyone to work, including those whom others might consider the least capable or least deserving.
What rule of measurement does God use with us? According to this parable, God is guided by grace. Grace is a free, undeserved, unearned gift. It can seem unfair, unsettling, illogical, and completely unexpected.
But for those of us who come here week after week to hear the Scriptures, God’s ways should not come as a complete surprise. We have heard other stories in which God acts in the same way. A shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness to search for the one who is lost. A woman who has ten coins loses one, searches all day until she finds it, and then calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate. A father welcomes home a son who has squandered his inheritance in dissolute living. He embraces him, barely gives him time to apologize, and throws a party for him.
What kind of behavior is that? It doesn’t make sense – not according to ordinary human calculations.
When I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, I visited death row. I became friends with a man named Henry. When he was younger, Henry had lived a very dissolute life. But during his later years, he began reading the Bible and praying. Cynics sometimes suspect such “prison conversions.” A couple of years before he died, Henry became Catholic.
I heard his confession on the day he was executed. So many years of his life had been wasted, unlike the lives of those who had worked faithfully and responsibly. Yet at the end of his life, Henry was offered mercy – and he seized it.
In a manner of speaking, he was one of those hired at the last hour. But he got in. Who knows what the next life is like? Use your imagination. Jesus is there. Peter is there. Mary is there. Catherine and all the well-known saints are there. And perhaps, among them, is Henry.
How do we know? We don’t. But this parable invites us to trust in the incalculable mercy of God. It reminds us that we cannot measure God’s grace in terms of wages, merit, or our human notions of justice. God’s generosity colors every divine thought, word, and deed.
Lest we get the impression that we can simply sit back, do the minimum, and expect a generous reward at the end, the parable calls us to something more.
We were created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, our lives should reflect that image to the world: persevering in goodness, welcoming the least, and being generous beyond measure and in unexpected ways.
That is the God who created us. That is the God who shines through these parables. And that is the God who invites us into the kingdom and says:
“Have a good look around. See how I treat the least. Observe how I act with generosity in unexpected ways. Now go and do likewise – whether you think they deserve it or not.”
Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092026.cfm
“At the center of any work dynamic there should be neither capital, nor market laws nor profit, but the person, the family and their well-being.” Pope Leo XIV, December 18, 2025.
Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ. —Philippians 1:27
In four different letters, Paul advises Christian followers on proper conduct. In Colossians 1 and Thessalonians 4, he names a list of ways the Christian should be, including “in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1: 10) and “aspire to live a tranquil life” (1Thess.4: 11). This flies in the face of modern society that urges us on for more stuff, more extreme actions, more emphasis on the superficial, more, more, more… Are you caught up in this kind of world?
There is another way. It is called contemplative living, and anyone can choose to live this peaceful way, just as you choose to live in a frenetic way of more and more. We have a group called Just Pray-ers that uses Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton converted to Roman Catholicism while a student at Columbia University. He entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a community of Trappist monks , and that led him to profound changes in his self-understanding. This ongoing conversion impelled him into the political arena and he became a strong supporter of the nonviolent civil rights movement of the 1950’s-1960’s, which he called "certainly the greatest example of Christian faith in action in the social history of the United States."
The Bridges series leads participants on a journey toward spiritual transformation. Inspired by the monastic tradition, Bridges is specifically formatted for the lay person through prayers, readings and questions. Come away to a world God envisions. We have just started the series again, once a month on the third Wednesday, 7-8:30PM. You do not need to study ahead or even have the booklet. The tranquil life is possible amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life. To join in these stand-alone sessions, contact: socialconcern@hnojnc.org.
To whet your appetite for a contemplative way, think about these words from Thomas Merton:
Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything, or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into the infinite further possibilities for study and contemplation and praise. Beyond all and in all is God. (July 17, 1956).
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC
Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home. From today’s Gospel reading:
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous? “ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Reflection:
God’s generosity is not measured by our calculations. God does not give love, mercy, or grace according to what we think someone deserves. The parable reminds us that God’s goodness is not a limited supply that we have to compete for. Another person’s blessing does not diminish ours.
So, we ask ourselves:
· When have I found myself comparing what I receive with what someone else receives? What does this reveal about my attitude toward God? · Is there someone whose good fortune or blessing I find difficult to celebrate? Can I ask God to free me from envy? · Who are the “last” people in my community or in my life? How might Jesus be inviting me to see and treat them differently?
POSTCARDS TO DEATH-ROW INMATES
“One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out.” ---Pope Francis
Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.
Please write to:
Byron Waring #1025501 (7/2/2007) Mario Phillips #0604251 (10/17/2007
Central Prison PO Box 247, Phoenix MD 21131 (While the prison is in Raleigh mail for inmates is processed at this address)
For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org
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(Always includes the 6 latest reflections with the newest first.)
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Eugene Williams #0441044 (On
death row since 5/1/2007)
