Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of St Matthew we hear once again a story told by Jesus that does not comport with the logic of the secular world….”Why do you stand here idle all day? They answered, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You too go into my vineyard. When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first. When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.”……….Clearly this story is an allegory, trying to teach us that some people embrace their role as disciples before others….But notice that God does not show partiality….The goal is to “get it” to “figure it all out” and follow the Lord….And we have our entire lifetime to do so…However, when we stop breathing “the whistle blows”…..In the story today from the Gospel, God gave the group who only worked one hour at the end of the day just as much as the group that worked all day…Why?….”What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?”…….What can we conclude from this response?…….Heaven is a gift, we can not “earn eternal life”…However, we do have to cooperate with God…Notice both groups of people in the story “went to work in the vineyard”…This implies that we must also work to build the Kingdom of God…Story after story told by Jesus in the Gospel indicates that same thing - We participate in the work of our own salvation……But at the end of the day…Eternal Life is given to us by God himself……What should be taken away from this story today?…..”Faith without works is dead” - St James in Scripture tells us that very clearly…So “get to work” - Its not how we start but how we finish that counts!
“The word of God is living and effective, able to discern the reflections and thoughts of the heart.”
When Jesus preached to the people of his day, he told many who lived in “polite society” the following…..“Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you”…This statement is to serve as a warning to us….Don’t be complacent - Don’t take the gift of your Catholic faith for granted…..We as Catholics have been given a tremendous gift - Do we utilize it?….This is what Jesus is asking of us today……During the seven years I actively served with Mother Teresa’s sisters, I have seen with my own two eyes many people whom they served, who were clearly living on the margins of society experience a change of heart…..Many of these men and women lived very sinful lives only to encounter Jesus Christ through the love Mother Teresa’s sisters showed them and in turn become followers of Christ themselves…Allow me to tell you about one of these men……I as working in San Francisco for a week and flew into the city over the weekend…It was Sunday and Mother Teresa’s sisters run a soup kitchen in the east end of the city by the San Francisco Giants baseball field in an old abandoned firehouse….I arrived early to help the sisters and the line for the soup kitchen was already forming…It was a rough group of men and women on the line…..At the front of the line was this one guy causing trouble with a group of what looked like Mexican migrant workers…The guy was all alone and frankly by his aggressive behavior towards this group of Mexican workers, I was waiting for a fight to break out…And the man starting the trouble was not going to be on the winning end of that fight - That I knew for sure…Just as tensions were about to erupt…A very rough looking guy who was also waiting on the line got between the Mexican workers and this deranged man who was starting the fight and told them in no uncertain terms to - “Cut it out!”….And trust me, he meant it…He told the guys about to fight, “We don’t act like this here”…And again, he meant every word of it…Clearly this man appreciated what Mother Teresa’s sisters did for him…..By the looks of this guy, you would never think he would be impacted by the words of Christ…...He was no “altar boy” - But clearly he was effected by the goodness shown to him by Mother Teresa’s sisters……This is real life example of the words of Jesus when he tells us in Scripture….”Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you”…..Are we impacted by the love of God?…Do we put our faith into action?…..Sometimes it’s the most unlikely people of this world that do….Are we “outdone” by them?
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