The lesson is simple: Stay in the vineyard.
Sunday, Sept. 20, the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mass readings: Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a; Matthew 20:1-16a.
This is one of those parables that challenges our worldly way of thinking. We are tempted to side with the laborers who worked the longest, thinking that their being paid the same amount as those who worked only for an hour is unfair. Think very carefully before asking God to be “fair.” What we need is mercy! Let’s consider this parable as it relates to discipleship.
If you worked, you ate; if you didn’t, you might have little or nothing to eat. Men like these were and are the poorest of the poor. Notice, however, that their poverty, their hunger, makes them available. Each morning they show up and are ready, available to be hired. Their poverty also motivates them to seek out the landowner, who is God.
We are these men, even if we don’t know it.
The landowner said, “Go into my vineyard”: This passage teaches us that entrance into the vineyard requires the owner’s permission. If we expect to see fruits (payment for the
