Gospel: Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Today marks the Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Gospel passage will be lifted from the narrative of St Matthew (tap here for the complete Mass readings from USCCB).

In today's Gospel, Jesus moves from Galilee to teach in Judea where he is sought out by great crowds and tested by the Pharisees on issues such as marriage and divorce. Jesus also encounters a rich young man who is unable to accept Jesus' demand that he leave his possessions to follow him. Jesus' response to the rich man sounds very much like the conclusion we will find in today's Gospel: the first will be last and the last will be first.

On the surface, the parable of the workers in the vineyard appears to be an offense to common sense. Those who work a longer day ought to be paid more than those who just work for an hour or two. When viewed in this way, the landowner seems unfair. That is because we are reading into the parable with our own preconceived notions of how fairness and equality should be quantified.

A close read shows us that the landowner paid on the terms that were negotiated. The landowner, it seems, has acted completely justly. The parable goes beyond that, however, and we come to see that the landowner is not simply just, he is exceptionally just. He has given those who labored in the field for a whole day their due pay. But he has also given a full-day's wage to those who worked only a single hour. No one is cheated, but a few received abundantly from the landowner just as we receive from God more than what is merely justifiable or due. God, like the landowner, is radically just and abundantly generous. The workers who complained are made to look foolish as they lament the fact that the landowner has made all workers equal. Indeed, what more could one ask for than to be treated as an equal at work or anywhere else?

The parable reminds us that although God owes us nothing, he offers abundantly and equally. We are occasionally tempted to think that our own actions deserve more reward, more of God's abundant mercy, than the actions of others. But God's generosity cannot be quantified or partitioned into different amounts for different people. When we think that way, we are trying to relate to God on our terms rather than to accept God's radically different ways.

In the end, we come to the realization that it is by the nature of God's infinite mercy and generosity that we are able to receive, and not by the mere quantification of our own works. For God's love is to be experienced by all and in the same manner, despite of the many circumstances that we have come to avail of his overflowing mercy.

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The Gospel is sponsored by Off-White.