134.doc

Scripture: Lectionary 134. 25^th Sun. Ord. A. Isaiah 55:6-9. Psalm 145:2-3.8-9.17-18. Philippians 1:20-24.27. Matthew 20:1-6:

Reflection on the liturgical readings on Sundays helps us to appreciate the first reading and its connection with the Gospel passage. We can focus on the same point of emphasis by praying and being attentive to the chosen prophet or writing from the Old Testament. In the short passage, Isaiah focuses on God the all Holy One. God is all merciful and forgiving. God is superabundant in generosity. We cannot fathom who God is by ourselves. The prophet helps us to listen to God telling us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. We are exhorted to turn to the Lord (turning involves conversion)”…turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.”

The Gospel gives us a parable unique to Matthew. We are to focus on the main figure in the parable—the Lord of the vineyard (meaning Israel, or the Church). The Master not the workers or the payment is the center of our reflection. The Master himself tells us that we are not to be grumbling or critical of what he does, for he does it totally out of the great generosity of his heart. There is no injustice done because all had agreed to the contract offered for working in the vineyard. The Master intended to pay all of them the same wage and they had agreed. He tells them, “ I am free to do as I please with my money, am I not?”

We realize that parables are often obscure for us who have a western mentality and a very logical approach to life based on our analysis of the facts. These picturesque teaching lessons of Jesus are not the way we normally think, but they do force us to think them over, to ponder them, and not to become jealous that the Lord Jesus surpasses our limited wisdom and rational way of thinking. He does this as a loving person who is teaching us through these figures of speech. We need to do some homework in rediscovering the culture and practical wisdom of the first century before we can get the point of the teaching. We cannot force our culture and our way of thinking on the story which always has a surprising nudge against our cultural hang-ups and our own limitations. Contemplation demands creative interpretation and a “letting go”of my own thoughts when I pray and meditate. We focus on God and on Jesus and the Spirit.

Our first reaction to this parable which is misnamed is that it is an unjust Master and that he mistreats those who have borne the heat of the day. Rereading the parable will help us to listen both to Jesus who tells the story and to the Master of the vineyard who reveals to the workers why he acts in a generous way and chides those who are grumblers and nay-sayers.

Often the temptation is to allegorize the parable and to read it literally results in our missing the point of such a story. The parable is meant to catch our attention and to make us realize there is a lesson to be learned. The commentators also struggle with this parableand often give several ways of interpreting it. Almost all of them link it to the saying, “the last shall be first, the first shall be last” yet, we have learned from the liturgical proclaiming of the first reading from Isaiah the wisdom of God revealed through Semitic cultural wisdom which often is beyond our comprehension. The Master confronts us and the grumblers in the parable and makes them and us face the fact that he is really generous—maybe not according to our and their expectations, but according to what he had already intended to do. We may speculate that those who followed the Torah and its prescriptions in the distant past and were faithful to it will be rewarded and participate in the joys of the messianic banquet in heaven; so, too, will the Gentiles, the “Johnny-come-lately” ones who are able to participate in the fullness of the joys and benefits of the kingdom.

In Matthew’s time the Church was composed of Jewish Christians and Gentiles. The first called and invited were the Jews then the Gentiles. Both were called into the community at different times but enjoy the full benefits of the Lord of the vineyard, the kingdom. We learn that God’s “hesed” or love is all embracing and touches those who are from the past and those who are from the present time. The wisdom of God is far beyond human calculation even when we think we know better than God or Jesus in his telling us this story. We should rejoice that God will handle the more recent righteous without forgetting the righteous of the past. All of us are called to work in the vineyard no matter how long or how short we wait. “Those also serve who stand and wait.” Amen.