The 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 20, 2020

Matthew 20:1–16a

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.’ ”

Among the ancient people of the Mediterranean world, time was kept by the position of the sun in the sky.  The most important divisions of the day, or, “hours”, were the first, third, sixth, and ninth, followed by the hour of sunset, which was not named because it varied widely depending upon the season.  After sunset there were three “watches” in the night, that is, shifts for those who acted as the town watchmen.  From the earliest times, these hours were sanctified by the Holy Church by her prayers, following the practice spoken of in Psalm 119, 164: “Seven times a day I praise you.” The psalms and prayers said at these times became codified in the Liturgy of the Hours, also called the Divine Office (that is, divine “duty”), and the Breviary.  Since these hours also correspond to particular of the Lord’s sufferings on Good Friday, the Christian is able to follow the Lord’s Passion and Death in prayer through his own day.  

The day begins with the hours we call “Matins” and “Lauds”, which are said at midnight or, at any rate, before dawn.  These two hours, usually said together, correspond to the arrest of the Lord Jesus in the garden, his desertion by his Apostles, and his interrogation by the Chief priests and the Pharisees.  The first hour of the morning, “Prime”, marked the dawn, and is the time when the leaders of the Jews took the Lord to Pilate’s headquarters.  This hour would occur for us at 6:00 A.M.  The third hour, or “terce”, our 9:00 A.M., is the hour when Pilate condemned the Lord Jesus to death.  The sixth hour, or “sext”, our noon, is when the Lord was crucified on Golgotha.  He hung on the Cross for three hours and died at the ninth hour, “nones”, or 3:00 P.M.  Just before sunset, his Body was taken down from the Cross.  This hour we call “Vespers”, that is, the evening hour.  At compline, now dark, the Body would have been laid in the tomb and the stone pushed over the entrance.  We call this hour, “Compline”, a short form of “completiorum”, or, “completion”.  In the modern Liturgy of the Hours, Matins has been replaced with the Office of Readings, the hour of Prime has been abolished, Lauds has become “Morning Prayer”, and the three middle hours of the day are now called, “Mid-morning Prayer”, “Midday Prayer”, and “Mid-Afternoon Prayer”.  Vespers is now called “Evening Prayer”, and Compline is “Night Prayer”.

By marking these hours, following Jesus with our mediations and prayers, however brief, we will never hear the accusation from our guardian angels, who continuously worship God, “Why do you stand here idle all day?”