Many Who Are Last Shall Be First
Sep
21
Written by:
Sunday, September 21, 2008
25th Sunday Ordinary Time
September 21, 2008
Suppose for a moment that you worked for a company for 30 or 40 years, achieved a certain status there and a nice wage that reflected your many decades with this firm. You have been a faithful employee. Then someone else is hired, and immediately achieves your same wage, status and retirement benefits within a year of being hired. You might feel a bit jealous perhaps, or even that you had been slighted, or unfairly held back. You would probably feel cheated or unfairly dealt with somehow.
This is the kind of example Jesus uses in today's gospel (Matthew 20:1-16). A landowner hires workers at the beginning, middle, afternoon and end of the day, and then pays them all the same wage! The ones that labored all day in the heat and the sun felt cheated somehow because the landowner was generous with the last ones hired.
We see this gospel being acted out in life all around us. Often a convert to the Catholic faith will be much more fervent in their faith than others who were born into it! They were hired later, but came in first. Then again, we may have tried all our lives to rid ourselves of some tendency toward sin or some bad habit like lying or gossip, and then, God in his mercy grants us the grace to overcome it all at once!
God can call us at any stage of life, at any time; sometime he calls in many ways over many years; but as soon as we really hear that call and respond to him, he puts us to work right away in his vineyard; doesn't matter how late in the day we get "hired."
Whether God calls us when we are in grade school or the nursing home, we are immediately given a task – cultivating the vineyard of our hearts, pulling out the weeds (sins) and planting crops (virtues). We are also put to work in the Lord's vineyard in the world – the church. All are called to prayer, the most important work, and then to spread the gospel in their daily lives, by words and deeds.
This gospel grates on our sense of justice because we have no idea of how great a payment God wants to give us. We agree to "the usual daily wage" when we profess our faith in Christ, which is eternal life! Note that, from the hour we hear the call to work for the Lord, we must continue our labors for him till the "end of the day." Everyone was paid for one day's work (a human life-span). The payment for each faithful worker is eternity in paradise. No amount of work for a "day" (one lifetime or less) could possibly compare with a payment so great. God is indeed generous with those who serve him.
Father Gary