(Homily 25th Sunday in
Ordinary Time Yr-A)
In
the liturgy of the Word today, the theme around which revolves the paramount
message is the two ways “the way of man”
and “the way of God”. The way of man
is manifested in the desire for justice, sometimes expressed with envy: “They
were murmuring against the Master saying: The men who came last have done only
one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy
day’s work in all the heat” (Mt.
20:11-12). Afterwards, we see the way of God: “My friend, I am not being
unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I
choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you” (Mt. 20:13-14). In the first reading, the prophet makes it glaring:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares
Yahweh” (Is. 55:8-9). Above all, St.
Paul in the second reading, indicates what should be the way of a Christian: “I
am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and to be with Christ, and this is
by far the stronger desire and yet for your sake to stay alive in this body is
a more urgent need” (Phil. 1:23-24).
The way of the Christian ought to be
influenced by God’s will, as it manifests in time. The overriding message
of today emanates from the Gospel and that is the fact that it’s never too late for God. God offers
full wages to all, whether we have served him all our lives or we have turned
to him at the eleventh hour. However, man
may say it’s not fair! Is God fair?
In the
Scriptures, we see some passages that manifest explicitly the divine logic, the
way and thought of God. We can see it in the
episode of the sacrifice of Cain and
Abel, the one who found favour in God’s sight was not the first born Cain,
but Abel the second son (Gen.4:1-16).
We see it equally in the context of the
anointing of David, David the youngest of the sons of Jesse was chosen to
be the King of Israel (1 Sam 16).
Also for the Incarnation of Jesus, a
small and insignificant village was chosen, Nazareth where no good thing was
expected (John 1:46). God’s thought
and way is really different from our ways. In the divine logic and parlance God often chooses the weak to make them
strong, or to say it with our Mother Mary: “you pulled down the mighty from
their seats and raised the lowly” (Lk.
1:51-52). And in another passage Jesus says something very emblematic: “the tax collectors and the
prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you” (Mt.21:31). God’s ways and thoughts are indeed different from
man’s. We cannot but remember that experience
of St Thomas Aquinas, on his deathbed, when he was caught up with the
realities of human finitude and the density of the divine mystery, he kindly
begged that all his writings on the nature of God be destroyed, because he was
convinced of their limitations and inadequacy. Even though this request of his
was never carried out, but this remains as a reminder to us that the reality
and the logic of God transcend the human mind and logic. Perhaps, God is indeed infinitely greater than any
concept of him the human mind can form or speculate. St. Paul upon having a
dint of the uniqueness, density and diversity of the thoughts and ways of God
exclaimed: “How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! We
cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways. Who has ever known the
mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser?” (Rm. 11:33-34).
The first reading (Isaiah
55:6-9) starts with the invitation to seek the Lord while he may be found
and to call him while he is near. God
invites us through the prophet to enter into communion with him, assuring us of
his unfathomable mercy. He therefore invites the wicked to forsake his
ways, and to the unrighteous his thoughts. It is God himself who speaks to us,
and says “my thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways”. The prophet cautioned the community of the
chosen people for operating on purely human scales and standards. He
therefore insisted that God's ways and thoughts were not to be determined by
Israel's ways and thoughts. The words of prophet Isaiah: “My thoughts are not
your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways” (vv.8-9) underline the teaching of the parable of the laborers in
the vineyard. The psalmist on
his part confesses that “God is great and worthy of all praise… how good is the
Lord… the Lord is just and holy”. This serves as a preparation of our minds to what
is to come in the Gospel.
Today Jesus begins the Gospel (Mt. 20:1-6a) with a
story that beats the human imagination, a story that apparently seems unjust.
In that passage, Jesus narrates a story of God’s justice or rather of his mercy
and generosity, a man went out in different times to call labourers for his
vineyard and he bargained with all at the same amount. Later he paid all of
them as they agreed, the same amount, but starting from those that started
late. This gave rise to jealousy, and when the first hired workers complained,
he reminded them of their earlier agreement “did you not agree with me for a
denarius?” “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” The
Psalmist once said that “God is in heaven and does whatever He wills” (Psalm 115:3), and that seems to
manifest here in the gesture of the Owner of the vineyard. With this parable, Matthew intends to portray the nature of
belonging to Christian community and the Kingdom of heaven. Thus, he acknowledged
the leaders and other exemplary Christians in the community. He however,
pointed out the eleventh-hour members of the Christian community who did not
possess the credibility like those others. He
thus advised all to emphasize on God's capacity to give, not humankind's
tendency to restrict and control. Mathew proposed a Jesus who transcended purely
human parameters and standards of reward. He
presented Jesus in the image of his Father: a giver of gifts. In this passage, we see the thoughts of man, the first
arrived workers began to murmur. They were jealous of God’s generosity. Jesus
narrated this parable because of the Pharisees who were scandalized of his
attitude towards those at the margins of their religion, or outsiders like
publicans and sinners. This parable was born out of this negative reaction of
the Pharisees, and thus Jesus intends to
let the Pharisees understand that the Kingdom of heaven is open to all even
those they have written off by their own standards. In God’s standard the
last workers automatically were made partakers of the Kingdom like the old
chosen people (cf. Eph. 3:6).
In
the passage of the Gospel, is as if God calls our attention and says: “Be
careful, for my relation with man is not that of a Boss and his worker or employee”.
For man tends to apply the categories of
a contract, of merit, of reward and of commutative justice to his relation with
God. Little wonder, in the prophecy of Isaiah, Yahweh says: “For the
heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts
above your thoughts” (Is. 55:9).
With this, it suffices to say that man has not entered into the reality of
God’s way, the way of freedom and goodness of the Father. This way of God keeps the “just” man uncomfortable. But that is why,
man has to pass from the mentality and state of the “just” to that of the
“justified”. In Mathew’s Gospel, Jesus
used this parable of the laborers in the vineyard as an invitation to
Christians not to crave for rewards. Even though rewards are not denied,
but they are by no means the aim of toiling for Christ and for the Kingdom of
heaven.
The passage can be divided thus into two:
●first part presents a generous and sensible man who shows compassion to the
needy: that is the thought of God. ●second part presents the thought of man,
expressed in the complaint of the “first arrived workers”. They were envy of
God’s goodness. The landowner narrated
by Jesus represents God, the God that cares for all men, especially those in
need. God calls all, all the times, in different situations, what is needed
is to respond to His love. In the case of the workers of the last hour, the
master had compassion on them. It
reveals that God looks at our needs and not on our merits or on our faults.
In the history of the chosen people one of the names of God is the
“Just”, but God does not choose this way in His relation with man. More so, the divine revelation speaks of
“God’s justice”, however, not in commutative terms, but in salvific terms. God is just in that He justifies us, He
saves us from our sins, and He redeems us through His Son. His justice is
imprinted with love and goodness. His justice is not a contract justice or a
justice based on merit or what is ones due. The last phrase of the Gospel
passage is discomforting for the “just”: “Thus the last will be first, and the
first, last” (Mt. 20:16). For the
justice and way of God are distant and distinct from man’s.
The
first workers complained and came up against one of life’s realities and perturbing
assertion: It’s not fair, life is not
fair. So many times and in different circumstances life leaves us feeling
cheated. In fact, think about the couple who pray for a child, spend thousands
on fertility specialists and drugs, still they have no baby of their own. Then
even as they try to adopt they enter into a long waiting list, maybe all to no
avail. Meanwhile, a young boy and a young girl make one mistake and one-time, the
girl ends up pregnant. Then the couples lament, it’s not fair. In all, the truth is that life is not meant to be
fair. Some people are battling with cancer or heart disease for instance,
while others no. Some are rich while others are poor. In fact, an existential
lesson we learn early in life is that life is not fair. Then here comes the
question of questions: Is God fair?
I will answer in the negative, No, God is not fair, God is generous. God is
merciful, loving and forgiving. God goes
beyond being fair, He is a Giver of gifts.
The
passage ends with the intervention of the owner of the vineyard: why should you
be envious because i am generous? The
question of Jesus and the entire episode reveals that while justice measures
merit, goodness and generosity measure the need. The Landowner was generous
to the last hour workers because the wages of one hour work will not be able to
take care of their families; upon this consideration he paid them the full
salary of the day. The parable is
therefore not a description of an act of arbitrariness, but the gesture of a
man animated by goodness, generosity and full of sensibility towards the poor.
That’s how God is! This is what Jesus was intending to communicate by means of
this parable, that God is so good that He even makes publicans and prostitutes
participants of His Kingdom.
In all, the prophecy of Isaiah in
the first reading underlines the teaching of the Parable of the laborers in the
vineyard. And therein, God’s justice is
characterized by mercy and love. We humans are always in search of justice and fairness, but today Jesus
shows us the other side of the coin. Jesus shows us the divine justice that
transcends the human justice. Mercy and
love are immanent in divine justice, while merit and fairness are immanent in
human justice. In Hebrew “tsedeka” stands for both justice and
mercy, and it could be interpreted that in God Mercy and Justice are
interwoven. We should therefore, learn
from God, how not to allow anybody to put a limit to our goodness and
generosity and to treat people not as they deserve, but with love and kindness.
Sometimes we may get angry and ask why things work well even for the person we
know that does wrong, rather the right attitude is to thank God for his mercy
and goodness, for who are you to
question God’s generosity? Sometimes, we act like the “first arrived
workers”, who murmur and lament when things are working out for others, rather
we should learn how to appreciate God’s
goodness to others.
The second reading (Phil. 1:20-24; 27a) presents St.
Paul as a man who later in his life comprehended a bit God’s ways and thoughts,
and decidedly followed in His path, even while in prison. Today we
shift from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, which we have been reading for
several Sundays now, to his letter to the Philippians, which was written the
time Paul was imprisoned. In our present passage, Paul faces the thoughts of a
possible martyrdom. Indeed, the passage
presents the apostle’s meditation on the prospects of life and death. He
found himself in a state of confusion. However, whether he dies or lives Paul
was convinced that Christ will be honoured in his body, either by his labors for
the Gospel or by actual martyrdom. St. Paul believed that his martyrdom will
perhaps contribute more effectively than his apostolic labors, to the
fulfillment of God’s designs in the salvation history. Going back to our
earlier reflection on reward, we can as well link Paul’s reflection on
martyrdom with the parable of the Gospel. For like the disciples in Mathew,
Paul left all and followed Jesus, bearing his apostolic witnesses in and
through suffering. As such, it could be
tempting for the apostle to crave for reward when he suffers martyrdom. Although,
one may argue that his longing “to be with Christ” is reward oriented, but Paul
resisted that temptation. In the end St. Paul tells us the only necessary
thing: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (v.27a).
Above
all, in the first reading, we heard God say: “My ways are not your ways.” And
the event that took place in the Gospel evidenced that fact. The men who worked
all day long were paid a day’s wage, and the last hired worked an hour and
received the same full day’s wage. Each
of them was paid not what he earned but what he needed to feed his family. God
is a Giver of gifts, He is generous. We need to imitate God’s generosity
and loving kindness. Today in this Eucharistic celebration we have gathered
around the altar of our Lord Jesus Christ and with humility like those last
arrived workers of the parable, we are going to receive unmerited and
undeserved blessings and favors, and we shall go home full of joy because of
God’s generosity and kindness towards us. Jesus our Brother and Savior help us to worship you with a sincere heart
and a generous spirit. And May the power of your Word dispel from our minds and
hearts the tendency of the “first arrived workers”. Help us O Lord to be less
of self and more of God. Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
Thanks for this reflection. "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ."
ReplyDeleteYes oo, that's my sincere program of life and desire.
ReplyDelete