But Only the Love

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras Sept. 20, 2026 Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092026.cfm

Isaiah 55:6-9       Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18

Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a       Matthew 20:1-16a    

When I don’t like something I read in Scripture, I have something to learn from it.  When I really don’t like something I read in Scripture, I REALLY have something to learn from it!  

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.

Lesson #1 that I had to learn is given to us from the prophet Isiah in our first reading:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.

God’s thoughts are infinite and focus on Heavenly things.  My thoughts are finite and focus on Earthly things.  Since I think in a finite, linear way, on a timeline, and God does not, I cannot see everything and all outcomes; God can.

Lesson #2 was about fair pay and how to define it now versus 2000 plus years ago.  So today, if I worked 8 hours at $18.00 per hour and got paid $144, I’d be ok; that’s above minimum wage. However, when I see those who only worked one hour also get $144, I’m very angry!

'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'

The issue here is that I’m taking something from over 2000 years ago and trying to apply it to today's standards, and that doesn’t always work perfectly.  The standard day's pay back then was a single denarius, and its value was enough so that a family could have bread, olive oil, and wine for a few days.  Of course I don’t want those families to go hungry, so in that light, my anger subsides a bit!

Lesson #3 is to remember that this is a parable; if my anger and jealousy blind me to the lessons that Jesus is trying to teach, then I’m really missing the mark.  If we break down the pieces of this parable, it becomes clearer.  The vineyard where folks are going to work is Israel, and Jesus, having twelve disciples like the twelve tribes of the old Israel, is here to establish a NEW Israel as God’s kingdom on earth.  The workers in the morning are the Jews who have labored throughout salvation history.  They suffered Exodus and Exile and rode the roller coaster that was their salvation history up to the time of Jesus.  The 5 o'clock workers are the Gentiles.    In the final hours of Jesus' life on earth, all of a sudden God’s chosen ones include these Gentiles. This includes us; we are part of the 5 o’clock workers in the story of salvation.

Peter asks Jesus a question in Scripture just before this parable:

Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”

I think a lot like Peter, on earthly terms, on terms defined by what’s in it for me?  What’s in it for us?  I want fairness on my terms! God doesn’t think like that - thank heavens!

 

This parable, in this light, helps me better understand a few things.  It is a privilege to work in the vineyard of the Lord and not a burden.  God’s work, no matter how hot I get under these vestments I wear, is never a burden; it is something we are all blessed to be called to do in whatever capacity God has called us.

St. Paul writes to the Philippians:

I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better.  Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.

St. Paul worked in the vineyard of the Lord and suffered greatly while doing that work. He should be our example today.  All Paul wants is Christ. To live is Christ, and to depart this life means to be with Christ. So it’s all good. He’s not looking forward to some kind of material benefit or pleasure in heaven as a pay-off. No, Paul just wants communion with Christ. 

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This week, instead of focusing on the amount of time we have worked in the vineyard for God, pray about the amount of love- love of God and love of neighbor we have labored in the vineyard with.

Saint Therese of Lisieux has my back here when she said:

Jesus, because He is Eternal, regards not the time but only the love.

The Workers in the Vineyard

 

September 20, 2020, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092020.cfm

The scripture I like the least is always trying to teach me the most!   

Imagine yourself going to work for the landowner first thing in the morning.  You work all day probably digging up the soil, and mud, cutting vines, and at the end of the day, you are tired, sweaty, and covered in dirt but happy to soon get your pay so you get in line to wait your turn.

Now you see the man who you know went to work at the last hour of the day and you see him collect his pay.  It’s a whole day's wage!!  Your thoughts go to when you collect your pay.  It will be at least 3 or 4 days' wage you think.  You imagine yourself going home and showing your spouse and how happy you will be.  This will help pay off a lot of debt! It turned out to be a great day indeed.  Now you get to the landowner and he gives you your pay.  A single day's wage!  What!!??  You worked from early morning until 6 pm through the heat of the day.  That first guy to get paid worked from 5 pm until 6 pm and received the SAME amount.  That first guy isn’t even sweaty!

If I was the last one to get paid from the landowner in today’s Gospel I would have been very angry!  Now I bring my thoughts back to today in time.  At work, I tend to get envious of that person who got that raise, or that promotion or that recognition.  Things I think I deserve as well!  Why didn’t I get noticed?  Why didn’t I get promoted?  What about me?  When I think about it, my mind is really having a bit of a two-year-old temper tantrum!  Suddenly, WHAM here comes today’s Gospel.  

The scripture I like the least is trying to teach me the most!

They agreed to work for a fair day's wage regardless of what time of day they started.  Nobody was cheated, it’s just that some received more than others based on an hourly wage.

In our own hearts, we often stand by our "rights" when they are not rights at all, grumbling enviously because someone else is more successful or fortunate than us.  I do that often and I need to stop it.  I need to rejoice in others' success instead of wallowing in my lack of recognition.

The first reading has some good advice to remember that:

my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

If work isn’t allowing us that promotion, or transfer, or whatever it is it could be that God has something better than the way we want things to work out.  We have to trust that God will provide, maybe God won’t provide exactly what we want but God will provide something better, and by better it means it will help us attain Heaven.

We see Paul in his letter to the Philippian's state:

I am caught between the two.  I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better.  Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.

Paul knows that even though he was once a grave sinner against the Church he will be with Christ in death so he desires even death.  Paul also knows he still has work to do on Earth so he must keep spreading the Gospel.

That must be our focus.  I’ve had a bad week at work this week.   Getting in early every day staying late.  One day I even started at 6 a.m. and ended up going back into the office and not getting home until after midnight, and my paycheck next month won’t be any bigger.  God was really trying to drive his message into me with a hammer!  In reflecting on today’s readings, especially the Gospel I realize working for money shouldn’t be as important to us as our work towards getting into Heaven.  That should be of utmost importance.  Sure, work and pay and supporting your family IS important, but should be secondary to your work in how you are trying to attain Heaven for you and your family.

We know the story of St. Dismas, the good thief on the cross who was crucified with Jesus.  He was a last hour workday repenter and his last moments on earth go something like this:

The other, (St. Dismas) however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

To this Jesus replied: 

“Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Let’s not wait to see if we will have that final moment to change, let's start that change now and remember the words of St. Niphon of Constantia:

God does not judge Christians because they sinned, but because they do not repent.