XXV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 20:1-16
In the parables, we can always find several layers of understanding, as they are stories in which different aspects are proposed to our reflection, challenging us. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we are presented with the parable of the landowner who was looking for workers for his vineyard. It is clear that the landowner stands for God, and the vineyard may be understood as the world, the Church or the people of God. There was plenty of work to be done, and so the workers were never enough, leading the landowner to look for workers up to the last moment.
In the first reading, taken from Isaiah, we find this command:
“Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,
call to him while he is still near.” (Is 55:6)
Indeed, we must search for the Lord, never getting tired of seeking him, like the beloved who looks for her lover in the Song of Songs (SS 3:1-3).
However, the parable presents a different situation. The workers are just waiting as if they would accept anybody who could contract them. And many of them were latecomers as if they were not in a hurry looking for work. When we are confronted with our own slackness, we always find excuses and blame the others for our own failures, and that’s what we discover in the latecomers. Questioned about their idleness, they answered: “Because no one has hired us.”
Nowadays, there are so many people in the same situation. Certainly, the unemployed are plenty. Maybe, there are a few who don’t want to work or don’t bother to look for work, but many others cannot find a job and there is nobody to offer them an alternative. They are left to themselves and they feel useless and unworthy. However, the parable speaks of a different kind of work, referring to the work in the Kingdom of God, in God’s vineyard. God is the one who calls and invites to work. He does not force it on anybody, but he looks for all those who are ready to hear his call and work. We are called at different times and in a different manner. To hear the call, we must be looking for work, that is looking for something else or something with greater meaning for our lives. On our part, we only need to have a readiness to work.
The climax of the parable comes at the end and brings a big surprise to all who went to work. The latecomers received the full payment for a day’s work and they were impressed with the generosity of the landowner. Seeing that, the first comers hoped for a much bigger reward and felt wronged and exploited when they received only what they had agreed upon.
Many times, we have the same attitude of the first workers: in our relationship with God, we want everything to be accounted for in a business-like manner, and we need to be forced to understand that salvation is not received as a payment counted according to the work done. Salvation is always a gift from God’s generous love. On our side, we must show commitment, endurance, patience and faithfulness. The willingness to answer the call and put ourselves at the service of the Lord is essential, not the amount of work done.
We should never forget the words of God in Isaiah:
“my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways not your ways”. (Is 55:9)
Let us give thanks for God’s call and for the work he was entrusted to us. Let us cooperate with Him, inviting many others to work in his vineyard, bringing the Kingdom of God closer to us. Let us listen to his call for conversion:
“Let the wicked man abandon his way,
the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,
to our God who is rich in forgiving” (Is 55:7-8)
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