Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sept. 23, 1990
Matt 20: 1-16
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.

Still without a Sunday ministry in the D.C. area.  Here's an oldie for this Sunday's readings.

“This last group did only an hour’s work, but you have put them on the same basis as us who have worked a full day in the scorching heat” (Matt 20: 12).

Last week’s parable of the unforgiving servant was fantastic—a story not true to life.  But its point was quite clear.  Today’s parable is quite true to life, its point a bit difficult to fathom.

The Laborers in the Vineyard by Jacob Willemsz de Wet

The scene which Jesus describes was all too familiar. The unemployed stand around the village square hoping some landowner or overseer will hire them for the day at the going laborer’s rate of a denarius for dawn-to-dusk fieldwork.  A denarius, a small silver coin, just about supports a laborer’s family for the day.

A landowner comes out at dawn and hires some of them.  At various times later in the day, he returns and hires additional laborers of his vineyard.  Perhaps he’s not too good at estimating the work to be done.  Perhaps he simply feels compassion for these men who want work in order to feed their families tomorrow.

If, indeed, it’s compassion that moves this wealthy man, then we understand also his generosity in overpaying the late-hired workman.  He’s giving alms; for if he pays them only for an hour or a half-day, they will go hungry, they or their children.  There is no public welfare of any kind.  The unemployed are completely at the mercy of those with money or the power to hire.  Jesus would be telling his followers to have a minimum of compassion for society’s least fortunate, to see that they have at least their daily bread and clothing and shelter.  This doesn’t entitle others, more fortunate, to squawk for handouts as well, in the name of fairness.

But probably this issue of fairness is what we need to concentrate on.  The vineyard owner is certainly just.  You contracted for a denarius.  Here’s your denarius.  Yet he’s not fair.  He’s treated as equals those who worked 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, 9 hours, and 12 hours in the Palestinian sun.  Who wouldn’t be angry in the place of those who worked all day?  You would be; I would be.

Every parent, every teacher, every employer has heard that same wail:  “It’s not fair.”  How come he got a bigger piece than I did?  How come she gets to go and I don’t?  How come he got a better mark than I did?  How come she got promoted and I didn’t?  There isn’t always a clear answer.  We can’t always say even, “I want to be generous.”

When Jesus told the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, who would have been protesting the preaching and behavior of Jesus as unfair?  Who would have thought God’s generosity, God’s forgiveness, were unfair?  It would have been the Pharisees and all those who strictly and faithfully followed Jewish moral and ritual laws.  They found Jesus’ behavior impossible.  Jesus had dealings with all sorts of disreputable people:  people whose daily lives evidently left them little leisure or inclination to study Torah; people whose livelihoods were unclean or scandalous, such as shepherds, tanners, tax collectors, and prostitutes; people whose very selves were unclean and cursed, such as lepers, Samaritans, Roman soldiers, and women.  (You’ve heard about the Arabic culture into which our GIs have moved.  That’s very like the world of Jesus.)  The Pharisees and other sincere people couldn’t believe that God would give his mercy and the fullness of eternal life to such outsiders, as Jesus indicated.  They felt it was unfair of God.  After all, weren’t they carrying the full burden of legal observance and moral rectitude?  Of course, they couldn’t see the burden of confessing one’s guilt and trying to turn around a lifetime of sin; or the burden of having to keep faith while living as an outcast or a 2d-class person even with God’s spiritual favor.  We know there are no easy ways to heaven.  God is generous to all, but all still have to get to the resurrection by way of Calvary.

God has been remarkably generous with us.  If most of us have a place in the parable, the danger is that we take the part of the laborers hired 1st and begrudge God’s generosity toward others.  In that sense, this parable is like last week’s.  It hardly fits us who have been called by the Lord into his vineyard, i.e., to be part of his chosen people—it hardly fits us to fault his generosity toward others.  We ought, rather, to rejoice in it.  It is that divine generosity, that divine favor, which we call grace, that has saved us too.  We ought to imitate it, as far as we can, taking to heart Jesus’ admonition, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48).  Whether our generosity takes the form of almsgiving or of a patient and forgiving heart, we will not outdo God’s goodness.  In the kingdom of heaven, there will be no 1st and no last, only full and eternal joy.