1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Dennis Keller
3. --
4.-- (Your reflection can be here!)
*****************************************************
1.
*****************************************************
Sun. 25
A 2023
Today's Gospel according to Matthew is the very familiar
parable about the landowner who hires laborers at different
times of the day. It is also one of the most difficult to
understand from a human viewpoint. It is clearly an example
of the fact that God's ways and thoughts are much higher
(more noble) than ours, as our first reading reminds us.
For me anyway, with a parable or in reality, working
hard is a good thing. Being non-judgmental is a better
thing. Being generous is the best thing of all.
How do we, who are indeed fully human, give something our
all, sometimes after extraordinary effort and time, and then
see someone else gifted with virtually or actually the same
reward and not be somewhat resentful? LONG sentence, even
longer and more complicated road to accepting the best
answer! The best answer, I think, is to reflect on the
generosity of God, the Landowner of all, Who gives us all
good things.
My family, and several of my good friends, have been
immersed in on-going struggles for a very long time. It is
difficult to look around and see other families for whom
everything seems to fall into perfect place. It is in that
time that making a comparison is the wrong road, to take, a
destructive one. It is rather time to write down all the
remembered blessings we have been given/ gifted by God, from
the most obvious to the smallest ray of sunlight on a cold
and unpleasant day.
Cultivating the attitude of gratitude helps our own
awareness of the goodness of God plus our understanding of
God's and another's generosity. Fortunately, none of us
gets what we actually deserve on the negative side of our
lives. Let us rejoice, even quietly, when another receives
a pleasant surprise. Our God is the God of Surprises... we
will have our turn again!
Blessings,
Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP
Southern Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one
******************************************************
2.
******************************************************
Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordered Time
September 24, 2023
Isaiah 55:6-9; Responsorial Psalm 145; Philippians 1:20-24
&27.
Gospel Acclamation Acts 16:14; Matthew 20:1-16
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my
ways, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8) If we had concerns about
Jesus’ parable in this Sunday’s gospel, these words from
Isaiah’s magnificent poetic renderings of God revealing
should offer us a clue. God’s ways are not our usual and
customary ways. How disconcerting! Our culture insists that
the only successful socio-economic culture is one that is
based on meritocracy. We think of that as justice, as how
things ought to be. It is one of the basic principles that
underlie communal life. What is often lacking in this cultic
underpinning of society is the absence of objectivity in
judging what is meritorious or detrimental to merit.
Environmental poverty, racism, populist nationalism, social
and tribal statuses, and religious prejudices have an undue
influence on meritorious judgments. Nepotism that is often
the basis of corruption, skews judgments.
God’s ways are not our ways. How then does God judge merit
and worth? How do we know how God understands justice and
merit? God’s intentions are easily manipulated as our
acceptance of God’s revelation is bent toward interpretation
according to our cultures. The parable in this Sunday’s
gospel is a difficult story for us to grasp. In earlier
studies of this parable, scripture scholars focused on the
workings of the church. They saw the parable as a warning to
those who labored long and arduously to spread the influence
and existence of the Kingdom of God. They used this parable
to warn those long-suffering evangelists and teachers not to
judge their reward by comparison with others who served only
short and intermittent services of the Gospel.
In our current environment in which social justice issues
are more present than in earlier years of top-down
structuring, the focus in more on looking at God’s ways of
justice. With the rampant and destructive nature of poverty
so prevalent in our world and in our nation, we see in this
parable another application. Those who worked only one hour
received a living wage for just that one hour of work. Is
this a statement of God’s justice? I think so. The work
performed whether in support of making God present to the
many or in support of the socio-economic realities of our
time ought to be compensated with a living wage. How
contrary this is to practices where minimum wage laws that
are to govern employment of persons in companies of more
than fifty have not been keeping pace with inflation and
costs of rents, health care, food, clothing, and just as
importantly the costs of education. The vineyard owner in
this parable agrees in contract with the first hired to pay
them a wage that would be sufficient to maintain a family in
food, in shelter, in health, and in education for a day.
Those who were last hired just before the end of the workday
at sunset were afforded a wage sufficient for their family’s
maintenance. The underlying truth justice of this wage is
the very dignity and worth of the worker and of the worker’s
families. That dignity and worth comes not from the master
of the vineyard but from the creator. That would seem to
take precedence over the wants and desires of the vineyard’s
owner. This is something to think about. This is something
we should examine our own perceptions, our own feelings
about hospitality workers, retail workers, maintenance
workers --- well all workers. A living wage would seem to be
a mandate from God’s creation of each of us. In this
respect, the corporate efforts to limit the number of
full-time workers so as to avoid “benefits” that support
families are also something to consider.
Meritocracy is something I’ve practiced as a human resources
professional for forty years. I believe in its efficacy.
However, if meritocracy is not an add on to the basis of a
living wage, this is not God’s justice. Poverty is
debilitating. Poverty in access to education, to health
care, to adequate and safe housing, to an organized
governance of society – all these limited examples of
poverty ought to be rooted out. There is not place in the
Kingdom of God for enforced poverty. There is no place in
the Kingdom of God to create wealth on the backs and spirits
of the poor.
God’s ways are not our ways! God is generous in forgiving
and is merciful. Were the parable of the workers in the
vineyard be too much for our spirits to except, we should
turn to this God whose ways are so challenging to our own.
We should beg for mercy and compassion so that our hearts
can attune to God’s Ways.
Dennis Keller
dkeller002@nc.rr.com
******************************************************
3.
******************************************************
******************************************************
4.
******************************************************
Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and
insights on the next Sunday’s readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to
preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is Wednesday Noon.
Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John Boll, OP
-- ABOUT DONATIONS --
If
you would like to support this ministry, please send tax
deductible contributions to Jude Siciliano,
OP:
Make checks payable to: Dominican Friars.
St. Albert Priory, 3150 Vince Hagan Drive, Irving, Texas
75062-4736
Or, go to our webpage to make an online donation:
https://preacherexchange.com/donations.htm
-- REGULAR INFORMATION ---
To
UN-subscribe or Subscribe, email "Fr. John J. Boll, O.P." <preacherexchange@att.net>
-- WEB PAGE ACCESS --
--
Go to
http://www.preacherexchange.com Where you will
find "Preachers' Exchange," which includes "First
Impressions" and "Homilías
Dominicales," as well as articles, book reviews and quotes
pertinent to preaching.
--
Also "Daily Reflections" and "Daily Bread." and many other
resources.
A service of The Order of Preachers, The Dominicans.
Province of St. Martin De Porres
(Southern Dominican Province USA)
P.O. Box 8129, New Orleans, LA 70182
(504) 837-2129 Fax (504) 837-6604
http://www.opsouth.org
