Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20-27; Matthew 20:1-6
Have you ever observed persons, made sacrifices, stayed faithful and then watched someone else receive the same blessing with much less effort?
Perhaps we quietly ask: “Lord, is that fair?”
That is exactly the tension in today’s Gospel. Some labourers begin at sunrise. Others are hired at nine, noon, three, and even at five in the afternoon, when only one hour of work remains. Yet, at the end of the day, everyone receives the same wage: one denarius.
To understand the parable, we need to remember that these were day labourers. They had no permanent employment and no guaranteed income. Each morning, they waited in the marketplace, hoping someone would hire them. If they were not chosen, their families might have nothing to eat that evening.
The landowner does not give the last workers a full day’s wage because they have earned it. He gives it because he sees their need.
The first workers receive exactly what was agreed upon. The landowner does not cheat them. The problem begins when they compare their wages with those of the others. What had seemed fair in the morning suddenly feels unfair because someone else has been treated generously.
The landowner asks: “Are you envious because I am generous?” Literally, the Greek says: “Is your eye evil because I am good?” In the biblical world, an “evil eye” was an eye that could not rejoice in another person’s blessing.
And perhaps that is the real question for us today, Can we rejoice when God is generous to someone else?
The prophet Isaiah tells us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
God’s justice is greater than our calculations. We often think in terms of merit, Who worked longest? Who sacrificed most? Who deserves more? But God begins with mercy to the one Who is still waiting? Who has been forgotten? Who needs to be brought home?
The parable is not a lesson about how businesses should calculate salaries. Jesus is revealing the Kingdom of God, where salvation is not a salary that we earn but a gift that we receive. God’s grace cannot be reduced to a system of payment.
Some of us came to faith early. Others came later. Some have served the Church for decades. Others are only beginning. Some return to God after years of absence. Some turn to him only in the final season of life. Yet no one is beyond the reach of grace.
The thief crucified beside Jesus came at the “eleventh hour,” and Jesus still promised him paradise.
This should give us great hope. It is never too late to return to God. It is never too late to begin again. A person’s past does not have the final word. Illness does not make a life less valuable. Old age does not make someone useless. Even when we feel that the day is almost over, God may still call us into his vineyard.
But this parable also challenges those of us who have been faithful for many years. We can be close to God’s house and still fail to understand God’s heart. We may serve faithfully yet secretly believe that our service gives us a greater claim on God than others.
Grace is not a medal for the spiritually successful. Grace is God giving himself to us and God cannot be divided into larger and smaller portions.
The reward of the Christian life is not that we receive more than others. The reward is that we belong to Christ.
That is why Saint Paul says in the second reading: “For me, life is Christ.” Paul is torn between his desire to be with Christ and his responsibility to remain and serve the community. He does not ask, “What will I receive?” He asks, “How can my life serve Christ and help others?”
Then he tells the Philippians: “Live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.”
To live worthily of the Gospel means learning the generosity of God. It means welcoming the latecomer, encouraging the beginner, forgiving the person who returns and making room for those whom society has left waiting in the marketplace.
Brothers and sisters, there are no second-class citizens in God’s Kingdom. There are no disposable people, no hopeless cases and no lives that are too late for grace.
So today, let us stop measuring our lives against the blessings of others. Let us thank God for those who arrived early, welcome those who arrive late and go out to seek those who are still waiting.
And when God is generous to someone else, may we not complain. May we rejoice because the goodness that reached them is the same goodness that has carried us all along.
May we live by this lifegiving message from the Lord. Amen.
Fr. Domingo (Meng) Barawid MI is a Hospital Chaplain in the Diocese of Parramatta. He is a Camillian priest, a member of the Order of the Ministers of the Infirm.
