As to the Gospel parable, who would not loudly complain if they worked all day and were paid the same wage as someone arriving an hour before closing? Many people may think that that this parable is unjust. After all, surely if you have worked all day you deserve more than people who have worked an hour! Life isn’t fair at times. Another interesting question, how many of us associate ourselves with the group who have labored all day, not with the last group that have been indulged. The parable starts by inviting us to look on ourselves as workers hired to work in a vineyard. The image is valid. It is a touching way of understanding our vocation as parent, teacher, friend, priest or member of this parish community. They are all forms of service, and toilsome ones at that, in a heavy day’s work in all the heat. Similarly, the staggered hirings during the course of the day are a powerful symbol of how the same vocation turns out differently for different people, Then as the gospel parable goes on, it takes a radically new turn which is the real message of the parable. We are not the landowners’ hired servants but his friends, free people, not hired by anyone. Look on God as a hirer of servants and we misunderstand him completely. So too, the rewards we receive for our service are not earnings but gifts we receive with humble gratitude.
Forgiving others is important, take a moment of prayerful reflection now. Think of a person you who you still feel hurt from. Pray “Jesus, you love this person who has wronged me. Help me to forgive. In the name of Jesus, I do forgive that person. And when the devil tries to bring up all the baggage and hurt, Jesus, help me to renew this act of forgiveness again, I pray this in Jesus name.”
We all need to forgive, and we all stand in need of forgiveness. Lord God have pity on the many countries, including our own country that are being torn apart by traditional hatreds. Send them men and women who will show their compatriots that unless they forgive from their hearts they will forever be tortured by hatred and the desire for revenge. As we know from the Lord’s Prayer, our best insurance police to receive God’s forgiveness is our willingness to forgive others.
This past Tuesday, our Worship Leadership Team celebrated sung Evening Prayer, also known as The Liturgy of the Hours. We were praying over this coming Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 18: 21-35, and during the time of faith sharing, one of the members exclaimed with great enthusiasm, “What if everyone in the world were to heed this call to forgiveness? Even if sometimes, the recipient of our plea isn’t open to what we are saying, but we still need to persist.” Yes! Spreading God’s love is hard work, sometimes, but day by day, minute by minute, second by second, we persist.
With the recent disasters in our hearts and minds the readings today certainly resonate with us at this time. The readings focus on this: we have a shared responsibility for all in the community of God. This responsibility is best summed up with our second reading from Romans: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law”. Our faith requires us to love one another! To be responsible and demonstrate our love and care in our actions as we go forth from this church. God requires us to act, not in the vague future, but in the here and now! We are called to act out of love. Love which is called out accordance with our faith. We remember, that when two or more are gathered together, God is with us. God calls us to live out our faith, to challenging society’s values, to speak knowing that God is with us.
This weekend’s readings remind us of our shared responsibility for one another. In the letter to the Romans, Saint Paul summarizes the theme very well: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” He goes on to write that all of the commandments “are summed up in this one saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Sadly, in our nation this week, it seems we have indeed inflicted evil on those who would strive to be our neighbors: those who were brought to this country as children by their undocumented parents. By rescinding DACA, “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” we take back the humanitarian policy that allowed these so-called “dreamers” to apply every two years for deferral from deportation and eligibility to work. Our Catholic Bishops have responded swiftly and clearly to this decision to rescind DACA.
During college, I experienced something of what our Gospel describes: whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake will find it. On the outside, it looked like I was practicing Catholic. I even went to Mass every Sunday. "Do that all though college, and you're a shoo-in for sainthood," so I figured in my confusion. But step by step I fell away from living my faith and was very far from the Lord in my heart and my interior life. Even the Masses I attended became increasingly blurry, just an hour-long blip in my weekly routine which effected no real change in my heart or change to my actions as I spiraled away from God in my real life and moral choices. Why?
The cross was central to who Jesus is as our Messiah and Lord. This is what Peter must learn. And likewise, this is what we too must learn in our path of discipleship. The cross does not have to be a fearful component of life. But we need to ask ourselves honestly how are we like Peter and prefer a ‘no-pain’ version of Christianity? What happens when you or a member of your family is given the test results that scare you? What happens when life doesn’t seem to be fair? Why me? I didn’t deserve this. Why did God allow this to happen to me? All of us, have we not, asked the question “why” when the results have not been what we wanted. Why do bad things happen to good people? None of us get a free pass from the cross in life.