Do Not Question God’s Generosity To Others!

(Homily 25^th 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)