Sunday, September 22, 2002
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Is 55:6-9
Seek Yahweh while he may be found;
call to him while he is near.
Let the wicked abandon his way,
let him forsake his thoughts,
let him turn to Yahweh for he will have mercy,
for our God is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways are not your ways, says Yahweh.
For as the heavens are above the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
2nd
Reading: Phil 1:20-24, 27
Brothers and sisters, Christ will be exalted through my person, whether
I live or die.
For to me, to live is Christ, and even death is profitable for me. But
if I am to go on living, I shall be able to enjoy fruitful labor. Which
shall I choose? So I feel torn between the two. I desire greatly to leave
this life and to be with Christ, which will be better by far, but it is
necessary for you that I remain in this life.
Try, then, to adjust your lives according to the Gospel of Christ.
Gospel: Mt 20:1-16
Jesus told his disciples this parable, "The kingdom of heaven is
like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for
his vineyard. He agreed to pay the workers a salary of a silver coin for
the day, and sent them to his vineyard.
He went out again at about nine in the morning, and seeing others idle
in the square, he said to them: 'You, too, go to my vineyard and I will
pay you what is just.' So they went.
The owner went out at midday and again at three in the afternoon, and
he did the same. Finally he went out at the last working hour - it was
the eleventh - and he saw others standing there. So he said to them: 'Why
do you stay idle the whole day?' They answered: 'Because no one has hired
us.' The master said: 'Go and work in my vineyard.'
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager: 'Call
the workers and pay them their wage, beginning with the last and ending
with the first.' Those who had come to work at the eleventh hour turned
up and were given a denarius each (a silver coin). When it was the turn
of the first, they thought they would receive more. But they, too, received
a denarius each. So, on receiving it, they began to grumble against the
landowner.
They said: 'These last hardly worked an hour, yet you have treated them
the same as us who have endured the day's burden and heat.' The owner
said to one of them: 'Friend, I have not been unjust to you. Did we not
agree on a denarius a day? So take what is yours and go. I want to give
to the last the same as I give to you. Don't I have the right to do as
I please with my money? Why are you envious when I am kind?'
So will it be: the last will be first, the first will be last."
Commentary
The reign of God is not something we can merit and have a right to. People from Jesus' times and even up to ours find it hard to understand this. God's dealings with us humans go beyond human justice, which is basic for order and peace in our churches and societies. Without doubt, much is to be desired of justice in the unjust relations obtaining in this globalized world. Justice is the minimum for authentic human living. But our calling to belong to God's reign demands something over and beyond this. And so, in the alternative opening prayer of today's liturgy we pray: "Father in heaven, the perfection of justice is found in your love and all humankind is in need of your law. Help us to find this love in each other that justice may be attained through obedience to your law."