25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – September 20th, 2020

This week’s Gospel parable of the generous landowner gave us much to ponder and discuss. A Sister opened our conversation by calling attention to Our Lord’s last words in this passage: “Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” She noted that Jesus uses this phrase often in the Gospels, and it can connect discourses we might not have initially thought were related. For instance, this expression appears in the preceding passage in Matthew’s Gospel, where Christ is telling St. Peter the eternal rewards in store for those who give up everything to follow Him. He concludes by saying, “Many who are first shall be last, and the last shall be first” – that is, those who have chosen earthly lowliness and poverty for the sake of Christ will be vindicated, in contrast to those who preferred earthly renown and riches.

Jesus then launches into today’s parable, and Sister suggested that He is using it at this particular moment to caution the disciples against some of the spiritual risks they may face. The Apostles themselves are certainly the first “laborers in the vineyard,” yet they must not for that reason consider themselves superior. They must, rather, be prepared to rejoice in God’s equal generosity with those who are not called to such strenuous labors on behalf of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps some of the Apostles remembered this very parable when, not too many years later, they received word of an “upstart young convert” named Saul of Tarsus who was having such great missionary success! To their great credit, they responded with joy to this news and welcomed him as one of their number – Our Lord’s teaching seems to have “sunk in”!

Of course, this parable can also apply to our own lives. Many Christians who have faithfully served God their whole lives are tempted to become envious when they see “eleventh-hour converts,” those who receive Baptism on their deathbed and “cut in line” to go straight to Heaven, even after living an evil life. Where is God’s justice, we ask ourselves? As it turns out, this Sunday’s First Reading holds the key: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD.” As much as we instinctively desire strict justice, this alone is not sufficient. After all, none of us would still be here if God were to treat us in this way! Rather, in His mysterious wisdom, He turns our ideas upside-down, teaching us to rejoice in the mercy that does not cancel, but elevates, the claims of justice. As the landowner in the parable points out, “My friend, I am not cheating you!” We receive what is just, but God in His mercy goes beyond what is merely just and pours out His graces in sheer goodness. Like the Apostles, we are called to rejoice in this fact! And if we do so, we will find that we are actually “paid” far more in grace than we would have been if we had clung to our bitterness and envy.

Finally, a Sister brought out yet another level of meaning in this parable. Christ Himself is the “first worker” in His Father’s vineyard, and He has already won salvation for us. God does not need the labors of those of us who come after Him, but He chooses to give us the privilege of working in the vineyard. We should not see our labors as merely slaving away – no, we should wonder with joy at the fact that God allows us to participate in our own salvation and that of others! When we view the parable in this way, we see all the more why envy is so absurd in this situation. Perhaps the deathbed convert got to go straight to Heaven, but we have the enormous privilege of spending our whole lives working for the God whom St. Josephine Bakhita lovingly called “the Good Master.” And even though everyone in Heaven is as happy and glorious as he or she could possibly be, those who have chosen over and over again to love God will have “stretched” their souls to receive more of His joy in their eternal reward. Truly, everything becomes a grace – as St. Paul assures us in the Second Reading, “life is Christ and death is gain!”