In today’s Gospel, we see a parable about a vineyard owner who went out and hired men to work in his fields. As the day progressed he hired more and more, eventually going out with just an hour to go until sundown and hired even more. By Jewish law, the laborers had to be paid at sundown. When the time came, he started by paying the last men hired and then proceeded through to the first. The men who had worked all day in the hot desert climate were infuriated that the man dared to pay the men who only worked an hour the same as they had made. I think most of us would have been as well.
It’s interesting to think though, the vineyard owner could have just done the work himself. Or he could have had family do the work. Instead, he went out and hired men who needed the work. Imagine being one of the last chosen? You’ve spent all day trying to find work just to feed your family for one more day, and the day is long spent. Only one hour left, and of course, no one is going to hire you for one hour. Then comes along a rich man who says come, work for me. Then when it comes time to be paid, you think you are going to get a pittance. After all, you’ve barely even worked today. Instead, you get the full day’s wages. How grateful you would be! How joyful to go home and tell your family of your great fortune!
One would think the other men would have been just as excited, knowing there was someone so generous in their midst. Instead, they were jealous that they hadn’t gotten more. No gratitude, no joy, just being about that petty life. Instead of rejoicing on the way home, they bickered with the landowner about his generosity. So what does this have to do with us? Everything. This parable is about the gentiles, about the Church. Jesus came along as the landowner and offered to every living person the opportunity for salvation if they but work in the fields and believe in Him. The Jewish men and women of his time often reacted just like the laborers in this parable, bickering and fighting about the fact God let the gentiles (that’s most of us) into the Covenant relationship with Him. Instead of being joyful that all had been saved, they were resentful and angry.
That brings us to you and I. Do we go forth rejoicing that we’ve been given such a gift? That even though we have only worked lightly we’ve been given the opportunity to work till the sun goes down on our lives to receive the wages of eternal life? Do we run home to our family and friends and tell them to go to the market and look out for this man who will pay you such grand earnings? Do we marvel in wonder at how God works in our lives? Do we approach the Eucharist at Mass realizing that this is the wage, this is Jesus Himself, being given to us now, even though we haven’t worked the full day? There will be an end to our lives, there will be an end of time, and Heaven is a real state of existence, but we don’t have to wait for that to experience it now. All we have to do is go to the vineyard, the Church, and receive the Sacraments. Then run out to tell others about it, because it truly is a remarkable thing!