The Virgin Mary is the perfect vine in the Lord's vineyard. From her there grew the blessed Fruit of Divine Love—Jesus, Our Savior. May she help us to respond always and with joy to the Lord's call, and to find our happiness in the possibility of toiling for the Kingdom of Heaven. (Pope Benedict’s Angelus Message September 21, 2008.

Matthew 20, 1-16 Twenty-four Sunday in Ordinary Time. September 21st, 2014

Today in our first reading God, through the prophet Isaiah, invites us sinners to gaze at the sky and see how far it is above the earth. Isaiah today is pointing out the reality that even vaster than the reaches of the universe, God’s ways are above our ways. So much is this true, that we are unable to grasp the infinite ways of God who continually invites us, and all sinners, no matter how big, to receive His forgiveness and His unearned, infinite, merciful love. Today’s psalm goes on to tells us that God is near to all who call upon Him.

In light of last week’s Gospel in which God our Lord commands us to forgive “always,” even those who most terribly trespass against us-sin against us, we can easily agree with Isaiah. So far are God’s ways above ours. This past week we of course celebrated the feast of the “Exultation of the Holy Cross.” This feast points out to us that God’s ways are definitely not ours.

We have a God who became man in order to suffer and die in order to forgive sins, to forgive even the worst sins and save even the most harden and evil sinner. Although the most innocent of all men, He allowed himself to suffer the most horrible torture and death by these same sinners, crying out to the Father, “forgive them for they know not what they do!” Here, Jesus, was not just speaking of those who tortured and killed him, but of all sinners throughout the ages, including you and me, all whom He would die for in order to offer the possibility of salvation, of eternal life, “by His stripes we have been healed.”

I think this, God’s merciful love, is the way to understand the parable in this week’s Gospel, which is by the way, I think, one of the hardest parables to accept. This parable seems to goes against our sense of justice, our sense of fairness! But when you look at it in terms of salvation it makes perfect sense. The “day” that the parable speaks about is really the day of a lifetime. Origen, one of the Father’s of the Church, said, “For the whole of this present life may be called one day, long to us, short compared to the existence of God.” To us life seems so long, but it is really just a “day” in the eyes of the Lord.

Our Lord desires that all men be saved, and so his patience is directed toward salvation. As long as one lives, God offers His Divine Mercy and love to the soul; and so even though, through the repentance of its sins, the soul comes to Christ late in life, God will, still draw near and take the soul to Himself; even though, the soul may need further purification of its selfishness. Every soul is precious in the eyes of the Lord.

With all that being said, this parable is also a warning for those of us in the Church already, for God’s Mercy is not separate from His Justice. Jesus is saying to us, “You have received the great privileged of having come into the Church already. In later days others will come in, but you must not claim a special honor and a special place because you came before them.” Again, all men, no matter when they come, are equally precious to God. This points out another deeper warning.

While we have to be in the vineyard, that is, in the Church in order to be with Jesus, we also have to toil in the vineyard, producing the fruit of leading souls to God through our faithfulness and holiness of life. We can’t be idle within the vineyard. Here’s what Pope Benedict said about this very parable:

It is clear that that denarius {used in this parable} represents eternal life, a gift that God reserves for everyone. Indeed, precisely those who are considered "last," if they will accept it, become "first," while the "first" can run the risk of becoming "last." The first message of this parable is in the fact itself that the owner does not tolerate, so to speak, unemployment: He wants everyone to work in his vineyard. And in reality, being called itself is already the first recompense: Being able to work in the Lord's vineyard, putting yourself at his service, cooperating in his project, constitutes in itself an inestimable reward, which repays all toil.

The Holy Father goes on to say:

But this is understood only by those who love the Lord and his Kingdom. Those who, instead, work solely for the pay will never recognize the value of this priceless treasure (Pope Benedict’s Angelus Message September 21, 2008.

To work for “pay” only, that is what we are going to get out of it, leads to seeing God’s great generosity of bringing souls into the vineyard and giving them the same pay and friendship with Him only as unjust or unfair.

If we are practicing stewardship, that is, giving of ourselves, our time, talent and treasure for the Kingdom of God, which subsists fully in the Catholic Church, of giving ourselves in its work of saving souls, living for love of God and neighbor for love of God, far from being jealous of new comers we will welcome them as members of the family, members whom we ourselves have worked hard to bring in, in order to join in the labor for other souls. It goes without saying then how much faithful stewardship has to do with the very essence of what it means to be Christ’s “faithful stewards.” Not to practice stewardship will ultimately lead us to becoming last in the Kingdom, not matter when we came in, and we will lose our eternal reward.

In the end justice will be fully served and we will receive our recompense for what we have done or, and especially, for what we have failed to do. Only those who come into the Kingdom and work and sacrifice themselves and their selfishness in the vineyard for love of God and for love and for the salvation of souls out of love for Him, only these will share in the fruit of the final harvest. And that fruit is eternal life, unbelievable happiness immersed in the eternal Family of God, in the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit along with all the angels and saints. No wonder St. Paul was caught between going home to be with the Lord, which is far better, or staying in the flesh to continue to help in the vineyard for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls.

"The Virgin Mary is the perfect vine in the Lord's vineyard. From her there grew the blessed Fruit of Divine Love—Jesus, Our Savior. May she help us to respond always and with joy to the Lord's call, and to find our happiness in the possibility of toiling for the Kingdom of Heaven." (Pope Benedict’s Angelus Message September 21, 2008.