The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday, September 24, 2023

Matthew 20, 1–16

Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, the landowner found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ “When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ “Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.”  We should notice here that the Lord Jesus is not talking here about heaven itself, for throughout the parable until the end, work is going on.  Laborers are hired for a time and then are paid.  This, instead, is about the Church, the Kingdom of God on earth, whose members work in the “vineyard” of the world.  The landowner is the Lord Jesus.  The marketplace to which the landowner goes to hire his workers is the Church.  The laborers are members of the Church.  “After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.”  These laborers are eager to do a full day’s work and so receive a full day’s pay for it.  They recognize that they must obtain food for themselves and that they cannot get it without working.  That is, these are those who wish to become saints so as to eat at the wedding feast in heaven, and they are willing to work hard to achieve this.  The work is great “but the laborers few” (Matthew 9, 37), and so the landowner goes to the marketplace throughout the day to hire more.  Those whom he hires at nine in the morning, then at noon, and at five in the evening are those with less ability or zeal, yet all are members of the Church who strive according to their ability and temperament for the Lord’s banquets.

“Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.”  At sunset, with the work done, all are paid.  The Lord rewards the workers according to his mercy and not according to the standards of the world: all gain eternal life.  He makes his mercy manifest to all  through rewarding first the last-hired — those with less ability or zeal to do the same amount and quality of work the first-hired had.  One of the first-hired complains about the seeming discrepancy in the amount of the rewards given out, but the Lord says to him, “You are not thinking the way God thinks but the way men think” (Matthew 16, 23).  The reward  of the first-hired is in now way affected by the reward of the last-hired.

Now, this may still seem unfair to us.  One way to think about our reward in heaven is of a glass that is filled with water.  It is a large glass and it is filled to the brim.  This glass is a great saint who persevered through persecution and finally suffered martyrdom for the name of Jesus.  As a result of the merit he has built up, so to speak, in his sufferings, his capacity for heaven grows.  We might think of his rank among the blessed as very high.  Another glass, smaller, is also filled to the top.  This is a saint who lived out a simple life in peaceful times, doing good and remaining faithful, and died in bed.  Both saints reign with Jesus in heaven, but one has a greater capacity for its joys than the other.  Both enjoy heaven to their fullest capacity.

Let us always strive for the higher place through persevering humbly in the vineyards of our Lord, working according to his direction: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Ephesians 3, 23-24).