Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 24, 2023
Matt 20: 1-16
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“My friend, I’m not cheating you” (Matt 20: 13).

When St. Dominic Savio made his 1st Holy Communion at the age of 7, it was highly unusual.  In mid-19th century, children usually had to wait till age 12 or older, till they were more mature and aware of what they were doing and what Christ was doing.

But little Dominic already possessed amazing maturity—the wisdom of the saints.  At that time he made 4 resolutions:  to receive the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist as often as he could, to keep the Lord’s Day holy, to keep Jesus and Mary as his friends, and to die rather than commit even the smallest sin.  Those are resolutions that you and I would struggle to keep.  But Dominic did, for the rest of his short life—he died a month short of his 15th birthday—and that’s partly why the Church has recognized his holiness by canonizing him.

By promising that his friends would be Jesus and Mary, Dominic saw a deep bond between himself and our Lord and our Blessed Mother, the bond of friendship, of personal closeness.  That’s a bond that our Lord Jesus cherished and tried to foster during his earthly life, a bond which he desires for us.

In today’s gospel, the parable of the workers in the vineyard, when one of the workers complains that some of them are being treated unfairly, the vineyard owner doesn’t get upset.  (St. Matthew’s Greek calls him kurios, “lord” [v. 8].)  Rather, the owner-lord addresses this fellow as “my friend.”  He wants to win him over, not defeat him.  He reasons with him, explains to him that he’s being generous rather than “fair.”  That’s how Jesus wants to treat us.  It reminds me of a Garfield cartoon published last month.  In all 3 frames our favorite cat’s lying on his back.  In the 1st frame, he says, “Maybe someday I’ll finally get what I deserve.”  2d frame, silence.  3d frame:  “But I hope not.”[1]  Don’t we all count on God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s generosity rather than on getting what we deserve, what our sins merit?  Generosity is what the owner-lord offers to those who deserved less than a full day’s pay.

Jesus takes the same generous approach in the extreme moment of his betrayal.  As Judas kisses him to identify him to his enemies, Jesus addresses him as “friend”:  “Friend, do what you’ve come for” (Matt 26:50).  Even as he’s being betrayed, Jesus appeals to Judas, offering him friendship, a chance to repent, to be converted, to be saved from the horrible remorse that will be his future if he rejects Jesus’ friendship.

The Lord always welcomes sinners who return to him.  In the Old Testament, Ezekiel prophesied in the Lord’s name to Israel:  “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.  None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him….  Do I not rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?” (18:21-23).

In the Gospels Jesus does exercise and enjoy friendships.  His enemies complained that he befriended “tax collectors and sinners,” eating in their homes (Luke 7:34); he wants the company of us sinners, too.  

Christ in Martha's House

(attributed to George Stettner)

We also witness Jesus’ friendship in the intimacy of the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, where he converses and dines, as the Gospels of both Luke (10:38-42) and John (12:1-8) tell us.  When Jesus was away, on the other side of the Jordan River, he was informed that Lazarus was seriously ill, and he told his apostles, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him” (John 11:11), that is, he planned to raise his friend Lazarus from the tomb.  On his arrival at Bethany, where Lazarus and his sisters lived, “he became perturbed and deeply troubled” with grief, and he wept, St. John tells us (11:33,35).  Then, for the glory of God, he called Lazarus out the tomb and restored him to life (11:43-44)—a resuscitation to this mortal life, not yet eternal life.

Jesus has promised to all his friends restoration to life; not resuscitation to our mortal lives and eventual death and burial; rather to the same life that Jesus himself enjoys after his resurrection.  At the Last Supper he addressed his apostles, assuring them of his immeasurable love for them:  “Love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you slaves…; I have called you friends” (John 15:12-15).

So Jesus speaks to us.  He wants us as his friends.  He speaks intimately and personally to us in the sacred Scriptures.  He invites us to dine with him, giving us his very self, his body and blood, in the holy Eucharist, so that we might be bonded with him both physically and spiritually in a permanent friendship, a friendship that lasts into eternity.  “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb” (Communion Rite; cf. Rev 19:9).

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[1] August 10, 2023.