25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 18, 2005

INTRODUCTION (Isaiah 25, 6-9; Mt. 20, 1-16) The prophet in today’s first reading is speaking to God's people in exile. They were depressed. They had lost everything. They were sure they had lost even God's love because of their sinfulness. The prophet assures them it is never too late to return to the Lord. Even though they were not worthy of it, and they knew it, God will extend his mercy toward them if they will reform their lives. When God forgives us it’s not because we are worthy, it is because of his own kindness and generosity. Jesus’ parable makes us uncomfortable because sometimes God’s generosity seems out of control, so far beyond what we consider fair (especially when he is extra generous toward someone besides us). Truly God’s thoughts are not our thoughts nor are his ways our ways. His thoughts and his ways are often beyond our understanding.

HOMILY - A lady told the story about her grandmother who owned a country store in a little rural town in Arkansas. (A 3rd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul – pg 233) The lady telling the story often would help her grandmother in the store. Whenever a customer would come in grandmother, would always ask the person how they were doing. Certain customers always went on and on complaining about something: it’s too hot, or the ground was too hard to plow or whatever. Whenever this happened, grandmother would look at her grandchild and give her a little nod. Then after the complainer was out of the store, she would call her grandchild over and say, “did you hear that? Did you hear what old Tom or Doris was complaining about?” Then she would teach her grandchild a lesson: “There are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. They expected to rise but did not. Their covers became their winding sheets. And those folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or 10 minutes of plowing that field where the ground is hard. So be careful when you complain, granddaughter. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”

Jesus’ society was different than our own. The usual wage for a day laborer was a denarius, which was enough to feed one’s family for a day. What the generous owner of the vineyard was doing was to make sure that none of the people who worked for him that day would have to beg, borrow or steal in order to feed their families the next day. It’s too bad the ones who worked all day were not happy that the ones who came late would have food for the next day. The owner was fair with all, but more generous with some. And so the ones who got their fair salary, but not the extra bonus complained. Let me say: there are advantages to complaining. It helps us get things off our chest, it helps us sort out our thoughts, it sometimes helps to get things done. Counselors and psychologists and doctors would not be able to help people if people didn’t complain. Politicians would be without work, if people didn’t complain. Friends and spouses wouldn’t be able to give support and sympathy to each other if they didn’t let the other person know how they hurt. But we have to be careful not to make complaining a way of life. We have to be careful not to do it out of envy like the people in today’s gospel. And if we’re going to complain, we should also stop to count our blessings.

Jesus’ parable is really about salvation, of course. Remember Jesus received a lot of criticism for associating with sinners. The religious leaders thought the ordinary person had little or no chance to be saved. They thought only the religious leaders were deserving. Jesus’ parable was telling everyone God's mercy is available at any time to the person who responds to his invitation to be saved. It’s never too late. It’s not smart to decide to wait until the last minute, however, because the opportunity to turn to God at the last minute might not be there for any of us. As St. Paul says (IICor,6,2) “Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!”

But our parable can apply to more things than salvation. How many times have we said, “God isn’t fair?” Fortunately God isn’t fair if fair means we get what we deserve. God is more than fair. God is overwhelmingly generous to all of us. So often we think God is being more generous to someone else and we are more deserving. Even if we were more deserving, and only God knows that, we will only make ourselves miserable by drawing comparisons. We will always find someone who appears to be better off than we are. Rather than comparing ourselves with others, it’s best to focus on God's goodness to us and to trust that God is more than fair toward any of us. We all have our problems, but we all have much to be thankful for. And the “Eucharist,” a word which means “thanksgiving,” is the most perfect way to do that.