Gospel: Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Today is the Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and Gospel readings around the world will be taken from the synopsis of St Matthew.

"Now the kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. 

He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard. 

Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, 'You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.'

So they went. At about the sixth hour, and again about the ninth hour, he went out and then the same. 

Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing around, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?'

'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. He said to them, 'You go into my vineyard too.'

In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.'

So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each.

They took it, but grumbled at the landowner saying, 'The men who came last have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same us as, though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat.'

He answered one of them and said, '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 lastcomer as much as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you envious because I am generous?

Thus the last will be first, and the first will be last.'

Today's Gospel reading reminds us that God does not only fulfill his promises, but he also exceeds expectations beyond what was promised with his overflowing generosity. It does not matter if we were called last or how long we have toiled for the Lord's harvest; instead, it is about a merciful God who loves showering blessings to his children without any regard to conditions.

This unconditional love of God purely centers on the Theology of Grace. It is not really about our acts of service, or our Christian living that is important, although it is necessary for human cooperation to receive this grace. As God is merciful, so shall we be merciful. This builds from the previous readings, that what forgiveness we receive, we should extend to our brethren.

Let us pray: God of generosity, let us not look on your unconditional love as a hindrance but a tool of your Messianic redemption. Amen.

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The Gospel reflection is sponsored by Pan de Manila.