Ez 34:1-11
Mt 20:1-16 Full Readings
Saint Pope Pius X
God's Generosity
Today's gospel presents to us another parable of the kingdom where landowner hired workers for his vineyard early in the morning, and then again at nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock and finally at five o’clock. But at the end of the day, he paid them all the same daily wage as if they had all been working since early morning. The ones hired first were upset thinking it was unfair that those who worked just an hour were paid the same wage as they were. But the landowner concludes, “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?”
God, in His mercy, is generous beyond comprehension. But we, as fallen humans, are constantly examining whether we are getting our fair share and comparing ourselves to others. We tend to want more and more and easily become envious when we see others succeed or receive blessings that we do not have. For example, if someone is more popular than us on social media, or drives a nicer car, or has a bigger home, or goes on an expensive vacation, we often tend to notice with a sort of sorrow that we do not have what they do. And that is envy.
The generosity of God does not compare us with others, each is treated differently, and everyone is welcome because God wills everyone to be saved. God gives generously to the first and the last, He welcomes everyone whether one came first or last. That is why the landowner (who stands for God) gave equal pay to everyone who worked in his field. In a world filled with concepts of justice, rights and equality, everyone would take the parable of the landowner and his tenants as unfair. More still, we as human beings, we are fond of comparing ourselves with others. These are precisely the kind of temptations that Christ is warning about in this passage. Whenever we remove Christ from the center of our hearts and allow our behavior to be motivated by anything else, sooner or later we notice our tendency to compare ourselves with others, which can lead to jealousy or envy. To counteract this downward spiral, we must fight to have a grateful heart. The more we look for God’s grace in our lives (and it is surely there), the less we will look at how much more grace appears to be in others’ lives. Gratitude just doesn’t leave room in our heart for anything but God—and in grateful hearts, God is able to work wonders.
Gratitude is a sure way of increasing God's generosity, grace and blessing in our lives and the lives of other but not questions like, "why him or her, not me?" "What did I do to God to deserve this?" Why am I not like others God? We have to know that even the little or many blessings and graces we have we do not deserve it even if we work for as many hours as possible. In many ways, every one of us is represented by those who worked only one hour and received the full daily wage. Some of us might have even worked for only a few minutes but we have an abundance of grace given to us.
This is because we could never earn the grace of salvation. The one and only reason we are able to receive the gift of eternal salvation and every other grace given to us by God is because God is infinitely generous. Therefore, the goodness and generosity of God must be our constant focus, and we must rejoice in that generosity when it is given to us and when it is also given to others.
If only we could wish others well as we are or even more than we are, if only we could be happy for other people people's successes, we could take this parable as a very important guide in our spiritual journey. When we consider the parable in this light, our hearts, far from being burdened by jealousy, are set on fire to zealously invite other souls to the vineyard so that they, too, can receive this totally gratuitous and unwarranted gift of God. God's offer of eternal life is open to anyone who comes in at any time and so there is no need to be jealous of one another for all of us if we are pleasing to God shall get eternal life.
What may make us lose eternal life is to make God not to be contented with us and with our work in his vineyard because he desires faithful servants even though you work for whole day of even one hour. If we cannot fulfil our duties and mission given to us by him every day by God through any means, we may lose our wages even if we work the whole day. In the first reading, we see that God was not contented with the shepherds of Israel to whom he had entrusted his flock because some of them were busy pasturing themselves instead of pasturing the flock, some of them were feeding on the flock and may be some of them were eating the sheep in the flock. Don't we see such situations in our time too: pastors feeding on their flock, taxing people much money for empty promises and miracles to fill their stomachs, others stealing church money, others going to the underground world to get power in order to move the crowd and perform miracles? Do we think God is happy with us? Pastors and shepherds of the souls, be warned lest God show us his wrath for misleading his people. Let us not put God's name in vain.
Let us Pray.
Lord Jesus, when I witness the ways that others are blessed by You, help me to foster a sincere gratitude for all that they have received. Help me truly rejoice in the many ways You bless all Your people. Free me from envy, dear Lord, so that I am not burdened down by that ugly sin. Amen
Be blessed.
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