Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 20, 2020
Matt 20: 1-16
Blessed Sacrament, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt 20: 16).

Thus concludes our gospel reading this morning.  The same verse also concludes the passage in Matthew’s gospel preceding this reading (19:30).  That passage recounts the story of a rich young man who came to Jesus but decided not to remain with him because he was unwilling to give up his wealth; after which Jesus challenged all his followers to surrender all that is precious to us for his sake, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:16-29).

Altho the Jews in Jesus’ time—and today’s preachers of the so-called prosperity gospel—believed that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, Jesus preaches that wealth may in fact distract us from God, even sidetrack us from him.

Jesus turns us and our world and our expectations upside down.  In our 1st reading, God said to his people thru the prophet, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Is 55:8).

Both the prophetic message and the parable of the vineyard workers upturn what we expect.  We expect scoundrels to be disowned by the Lord, but he’s generous in forgiving those who repent of their wickedness (55:7).  We expect those who work longer and harder to receive greater pay, but the Lord is more generous than we expect.

Laborers in Vineyard (Jacob Willemsz de Wet)

In the parable, the 1st workers hired seem at 1st glance to have a legitimate gripe.  On the other hand, the landowner reminds them of their agreement:  for a day’s work, a day’s wage.  He’s not cheating them.  Then he points out that he is, instead, being generous with the other workers—day laborers who were so unfortunate as not to have been hired earlier in the day by someone else, but who, like everyone, need a daily wage to survive—to buy bread and salt and other basics for their families, to pay rent, perhaps to buy medicine.  We don’t even know whether the landowner really needed those workers for the last hour or was actually going out of his way to help them, to give them not only a day’s pay but also a little bit of self-respect in that they were providing for their families.

The men who worked all day—something like 12 hours—in the heat, probably gathering the grape harvest, in effect complain that they’re being treated unfairly, rather than admiring the landowner’s generosity.  It’s human nature to judge our status by what others have rather than by what we do have.  Jesus is telling us this parable as a commentary on the kingdom of heaven, and thru it he emphasizes God’s generosity.  As human beings, sinful men and women, we’re in no position to demand of God what we deserve, as the 1st workers suggest to the landowner.  As sinners we don’t deserve a place in the kingdom of heaven.  We’re like the workers hired later in the day, even at the end of the day, grateful that God is kind, merciful, and generous to us, forgiving us as we don’t deserve—remember last week’s parable of the 2 servants who were in debt and needed mercy (Matt 18:21-35)?

Whether we’ve tried to be faithful to Christ all our lives or have come to him relatively late in life; whether we’re guilty of unspeakable sins like adultery or abortion or indifference toward the poor, or are guilty of “only” lying, cheating, petty theft, harshness toward one another, gossip, neglect of our sick or elderly relatives—all of us need Christ to invite us into his vineyard and to offer us what only he can give, the wages of everlasting life, for he “is generous in forgiving” whoever comes to him.