Gospel Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first. ‘And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. ‘But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Homily
Quite recently a young woman whose mother had just died was terribly upset when she realized that her mother had not divided her property equally among her three children. In fact she left the bulk of her property for two of her three children. One morning her husband called her and said to her, ‘Before your mother died she explained to me what she was doing. It is not that she loved you any less but your two sisters are not as well off as we are. She left the house for them because she wanted to be sure that they would have a roof over their heads. We have a fine home and much more. Your mother asked me to ask you to love them and not be separated from them because of the way she divided the property.’ As I read the Gospel passage given to us for this Sunday, I was reminded of that story. I am also reminded of the emphasis of Pope Francis on the Mercy of God and that in fact God’s Justice is God’s Mercy.
As it was last weekend this Gospel story is another attempt of Jesus to bring his disciples to understand the values by which kingdom people live. Jesus begins by saying “The Kingdom of heaven is like….” The story that Jesus tells is a story which at first glance leaves us feeling that the householder is unjust. How can it be that those who have only worked for one hour receive the exact same amount as those who have worked all day?
But human beings are so self-centered that like the workers who have worked for greater or lesser periods during the day, we too, putting ourselves in their place, believe that there should have been a sliding scale to pay the workers. In that way those who worked more would be paid more. Gospel values tend to be counter cultural however, and so the Gospel invites us to have another attitude. The Gospel calls us before all else’s to love as Christ loved, thinking of others before we think of ourselves and thus to link recompense, not only to output but also and very importantly to needs. That is why the Church insists that workers must be paid a living wage. Historians tell us that one denarius was the lowest wage for a day’s work; it would not leave a man and his family much of a margin. If there was a sliding scale those who worked for only one hour would not be able to feed their families. The householder’s attitude is therefore one of Mercy. It is the attitude of God towards us, an attitude that all of us are called to imitate.
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As we deal with persons who work for us we must therefore ask ourselves if the minimum wage is in fact a living wage. Put in a different way, can we live on what we expect our workers to live?
The Gospel therefore invites those of us who are employers to be more sensitive to the needs of those who work for us and forbids us from hiding behind the institution of the minimum wage.
The gospel story deals also with the attitude of the workers, who are also called to link recompense to needs. The workers must have known that one denarius was barely sufficient to feed a family for the day. They do not seem to have any feeling for those who only worked for one hour, not because of laziness but simply because there was no work. They do not remember how difficult it would be for those workers to take care of their families, and so the story reminds us that we must be concerned about the plight of others and welcome the generosity of those who act in such a way that the unfortunate are provided for. Through this story, Jesus is reminding his disciples of the practical application of the injunction to “love one another.”
Like the workers who considered the householder unjust because of his actions, we are called to understand that in the kingdom, Justice, Compassion and Mercy go together because for God Justice is an expression of love, which as you know is the determination to do the best that we can for the other. For the householder, the best that he could do for the workers of the eleventh hour was to pay them a wage with which they could feed their families. In that attitude we discover the justice of God. God’s justice is in fact his compassion and Mercy. Mustn’t our justice be the same? It is the only option if we are to be truly citizens of the kingdom.
Prayer
All powerful and ever loving God, in You we have experienced the Mercy which is the expression of Your Justice. We thank You for not being just in the way that we understand justice, because if you were, no one would be saved. We ask you Father to change our hearts so that Justice and compassion may meet in us and mercy will be the expression of Your command to love one another. We ask this through Your son and our model, Jesus, who in the midst of His agony could pardon the repentant thief. Amen
