ARE WE ENVIOUS OF GOD'S GENEROSITY TO OTHERS?

XXV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Mt 20:1-16

Jesus’ parables are extraordinary, both in their realism and in their strangeness. In them, we find the ordinary life of the common people, but with something completely different, which makes them challenging and appealing.

The parable in this Sunday’s gospel presents a situation experienced by thousands of common people, those who do not have permanent jobs, having to be on the look out for any kind of piece work, every day. They will accept any kind of job. And the parable presents as well the farmer, who has an urgent work that must be done quickly and without delay. He went early in the morning looking for labourers for his fields, and he went again and again, up to the last hour. He took even the ones nobody else wanted, the rejected and unworthy, good for nothing. All could find work in his vineyard.

If we are used to reading the Scriptures, we know that the vineyard stands for the people of God. The farmer, the owner of the vineyard, is Jesus Christ and the workers are his disciples, whom he calls with urgency and at any time for the work of the Kingdom of God. The labourers are never enough, and the Lord is ready to call anybody, without looking at their worthiness. They only need to be ready to answer the call and put themselves at the service of Christ.

Before this parable, Peter had asked Jesus about the reward of all those who followed him (Mt 19:27-30), and Jesus had promised him a reward far bigger than he could dream of. There will be a reward, the reward of eternal life, but that reward comes more from God’s own goodness, from his generosity and his love than from the effort we have done to obtain it. It is important to work, and we cannot refuse the work given to us; but in the end, it is God’s love that reigns supreme, and we cannot be envious or jealous, because God has been merciful to others.

Nowadays, there are so many people who feel wronged and who demand justice, but the justice they want is revenge, which leaves no place for mercy and love. The first workers are like the elder brother of the prodigal son: they considered themselves wronged, because the farmer was generous and kind to the late comers. They forgot that they had the same needs and the same deep thirst for life and salvation. We should rejoice in God’s generosity to all of us.