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Homily:
25th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Pope Francis, after being elected the pope, chose for his
papal motto the same motto he had chosen when he was ordained a bishop:
“Miserando atque eligendo”, meaning “by having mercy and by choosing”. In choosing this motto, what Pope Francis
hoped to acknowledge was that he did not
see his election as pope (or as bishop, for that matter) as being something
that he earned through any merit of his own; but rather that it was because he
had been “looked upon mercifully” by God, that he was chosen anyway. I mention this here because I think that this,
in a way, is the hidden theme behind the lesson of today’s Gospel reading.
First, of course, we must emphasize that Jesus, in giving
us this parable, is speaking about the end of all time, for he states: “The
kingdom of heaven is like…” Therefore,
this is not a lesson in how to be a generous, more “Christ-like” business manager;
but rather it is a lesson about the meaning of life and what it is that we are
all doing here. With that in mind, let’s
look at the parable.
Jesus gives us the image of a landowner (who, in this case,
represents God) who goes out to hire laborers for his vineyard (who, of course,
represent us). Now, before we run past
this detail, let’s first take note of something. Those laborers went out to the marketplace
hoping someone would come and hire them for the day so that they could earn
money; presumably to provide for themselves and their families. In other words, they acknowledged that they were,
in a sense, powerless to acquire what they needed on their own and so were
looking for a generous landowner who could provide it for them in exchange for
some commitment of labor. They,
therefore, went to the marketplace in the hope of being hired. And so the first lesson we learn from this
parable is that if we want to be receivers of God’s generous mercy we must make
ourselves available to God’s mercy by turning away from our self-reliance and
seeking his generous election.
This, in fact, is the message that we heard from the
prophet Isaiah in the first reading: “Seek the Lord while he may be found,” we
hear Isaiah proclaim, “call him while he is near … let [the wicked] turn to the
Lord for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.” Therefore, while it is true that the Lord
will come to us to choose us for his vineyard, it is also true that he will only
do so when we have turned away from the illusion of self-reliance and have “gone
out to the marketplace” to give ourselves over to his generosity. Then, having been mercifully looked upon and
chosen for God’s kingdom, we will go out to labor in his vineyard.
Then, in the parable, we hear that the landowner goes back
to the marketplace four more times and finds other able laborers who were
“standing idle”, indicating that they had not been hired for work. This, of course, indicates that God never
ceases to seek out those who are lost or abandoned; but it also shows just how
abundant the labor in his vineyard is: “The harvest is abundant, but the
laborers are few”, Jesus says in another place.
Here we see that there is no limit to the number that God will choose to
go out into his vineyard. God,
therefore, is constantly seeking those who turn to seek him. Therefore, we (that is, those who already have
been mercifully chosen by God) must share in God’s mission to choose more
laborers for his vineyard by calling those “standing idle in the marketplace”
to go, as Isaiah exhorts us, and “seek the Lord while he may be found.”
My brothers and sisters, I cannot emphasize this point
enough. We must go out, like the
landowner, and seek those who have no direction, who are “standing idle in the
marketplace”, and invite them to come into the Lord’s vineyard. Jesus’ parable states that at 5:00—the last
hour of the workday—the landowner goes out and finds still more laborers
standing in the market and he asks them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?”
and they reply, “Because no one has hired us.”
It is a truth of our time that when asked why an individual hasn’t
joined a church, a majority of those who are un-churched will say that it’s
because they have never been invited. We
must, therefore, be that representative of God who, finding them having “stood
idle” most of their lives, invites them to go out and find deep meaning and
purpose in their life by working in the vineyard of the Lord.
Finally, my brothers and sisters, having been looked on
mercifully by God who chose us for his vineyard, we must not fall victim to the
temptation to look down on our brothers and sisters who have come “late in the
day”, so to speak, into the vineyard to labor.
This is the sin of the laborers who were hired first in Jesus’ parable:
they forgot that they had been recipients of the mercy of the landowner and
thought that they deserved more than what had been given to those who came late
in the day to work. Instead of being
thankful for the grace of being able to provide for themselves and their family
for another day, they became jealous of the others who earned the same amount
with less labor. Therefore, my brothers
and sisters, we must not allow ourselves to forget with what mercy God has
chosen us and the grace that he has bestowed upon us and so become jealous of
our brothers and sisters who, perhaps, have come only recently to know and
experience God’s merciful election and the grace that comes with it; because, by
God’s mercy, they are co-heirs to the kingdom of heaven with us.
And so, my brothers and sisters, as we daily respond to
God’s mercy and his generous call to go out into his vineyard to labor for his
kingdom, let us not forget our responsibility to invite those around us to join
us in this joy-filled work; for the promise of “a full day’s wage” is available
to them, even if they’ve gone out into the vineyard late in the day. And let us resist the temptation to be jealous
of God’s generosity to all his laborers, for this only breeds bitterness in our
hearts and contempt for one another and for God. Rather, let us celebrate God’s generous mercy
in choosing each one of us—the mercy won for us by the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus—the
mercy that we turn now to offer back to him here on this altar.
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