Wednesday of 20th Week, uneven numbered year
"Now the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with his 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 market place and said to them, ’You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.’
In summertime, the day begins around six in the morning and the employers arrive a little after that to look for employees. With this parable, Jesus shows us God’s Compassion. He is always seeking us. For one person, salvation can come early in life. Even a child can be converted and follow Jesus. For another, salvation can come after in life at the eleventh hour, even right at the last minute. We are the new vineyard that the Lord Jesus, the Incarnate Word, came to regenerate.To re- establish it he needs us, he needs our consent. Jesus will make all things new out of the Gift of Creation. It is his work of the Passion with the ’third hour’. He went out around the third hour, saw others that were in the square without doing anything and said to them, ’Go into the vineyard, you also and I shall give you what is fitting.’
"So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same.Then at about the eleventh hour he wen tout and found more men standing round, and he 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 the vineyard too.’
God’s Compassion spreads until the last minute, at the eleventh hour. One of the ill doers turned to Jesus on the Cross, saying, ’Remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus replied, ’I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. ’No doubt we could say that for the ill doer it was almost too late! But it is never too late when one is still alive : at the end of the day the workers who had worked
during most of the day weren’t very pleased. They could see that those who had begun later had received the same salary as they had, one denier. God wishes to save the whole of humanity, he doesn’t want to lose anyone. Still today we have the experience of all those who would like to work at God’s work, whom no one has taken on.To work at Gods work means to enter into a gratuitous love!
“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….’Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be envious because I am generous?’”
’Can’t I do what I like to?’ The master took these unemployed people and gave them some work to do.He looked for those he wished to look for and he gave them what he decided to give them.None of them had even deserved to be chosen, so none of them had any reason to complain.Before we become Christians, we were lost sinners. We deserve nothing from God, and God didn’t give us what we deserved.This is where grace is found.We are always likely to re introduce the old rules of human games when it comes to the Gift of God! It is such a source of happiness to be at work for God’s work to come about! This is how the last will be first and the first last.