Wednesday of the Twentieth Week of the Year
Matthew
20:1-16
This is one gospel I would never want to read at Mass on
Labor Day! I could just see the placards and signs describing the employer,
who happens to be the Lord, as unfair and crazy.
Yet, that is a pretty accurate description of the
Father. He is crazy, crazy in love for us. He is unfair, unfair in giving us
what we could never deserve.
The parable of the Master and the workers in the
vineyard is a very significant one in trying to understand the mercy and
love of God. We are so used to the justice and fairness as the American way
of life, that his Gospel ruffles our feathers and challenges us to look at
God’s justice.
We don’t have a problem with a God who is fair or
even kind, but when someone turns their back on Him all their life and
repents at the very moment of death, should they get the same reward as we
who have toiled for the Lord in the heat of the day? Isn’t that really a
slap in the face for those who have worked so hard and been so faithful?
Isn’t forgiveness like this detrimental to the esprit de coeur of the
good? The Gospel simply makes no sense to the way we look at things and do
things. There’s no justice here.
Of course there’s not. The justice and mercy of
God are beyond our comprehension and understanding. God’s love is the
mystery. It is a mystery we can not comprehend. All we can do is celebrate
it and accept it.
No one, even the person who has toiled in the
heat of the day, deserves God’s mercy and forgiveness. We cannot come near
on our own merit to the holiness and purity of God. Our salvation is a pure
and holy gift. We can never earn or deserve it. All we can do is accept it
like the workers who came in the late afternoon.
We are all those late afternoon workers and our
prayer is that of the good centurian: “Lord, I am not worthy.” “Say but
the word and my soul shall be healed.” In our holy faith we worship the
God of unending mercy. The one who waits and waits until we finally come
home. He does this because He loves us. |