The following in Bishop Caggiano’s homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time:
Sisters and brothers in the Lord,
When I look back on the many many times that my sister and I fought when we were young, the majority of those occasions were precipitated because one of us thought we were being unjustly treated. Because we were keenly aware of what the other was getting.
Now the truth of the matter is, most of those times it was all self-interest. But it does demonstrate for even when we’re very young, there’s an innate desire for justice. That we be treated fairly, we be treated equally, we be treated with dignity. And unfortunately in the society in which we live that struggle, you and I as Believers must bring forward. For the world does not treat everyone equally or justly. We have much work to do to realize that basic human desire and need. It is, after all, a basic virtue.
Now I raised this for a reason. Because this parable is strange, isn’t it? For when you read it or hear it at first
value, it seems as if the landowner is being unjust. For if you worked a full day and you worked for an hour, who in our structure of life would give you the same wage? It seems unjust.
And yet, Isaiah tells us our ways are not God’s ways. Our thoughts are not His. So what is the Lord actually teaching us?
well perhaps my dear friends, part of the answer lies with the fact that the context of the parable is the clue to the answer we are looking for. For the Lord is not giving us an example of human interaction or how society operates. He would not waste his time doing that.
This parable, like every parable, like every miracle, is a sign and teaching of the Kingdom. He says so, the evangelist, right at the beginning. And if that’s the case, we have to see it with a different set of eyes. So let me ask you, what is the wage that is being given if the landowner is the king of the Kingdom? What is the wage being given? What is at the heart of the Kingdom if not the generous, reckless love of God that cannot be earned, no matter how long or how short we work? It is a gift open to all. It is a gift that is not given to us because we are meriting it.
And let me ask you a second question. What is the day the Lord’s referring to? It’s not the 24 hours you and I measure, but perhaps it is the measure of one’s life. And if you see it in those terms, in that lens, then this wage, this gift of God’s love to some come at the beginning of their lives, some in the middle of their lives, some in the twilight of their lives. For none of them is wages earned, they are free gifts.
And therefore you may ask yourself, well then Bishop, why would I need to get it at the beginning of my life and work in the vineyard for the love of God. Why would I do it at the beginning? Well precisely because of what the love does to you and me. It heals us, it frees us, it empowers us, it enlightens us, it encourages us to be the instruments of God’s love to our sisters and brothers.
You see, that is what makes the labor a joy. For the gift, the wage was given. And we journey through life. And those who receive it towards the end of their lives certainly are healed and forgiven. But perhaps they could look at the arc of their life and sometimes wonder, why I was not able to say yes earlier, see the benefits that they glimpse towards the end of their earthly life. But that is not for us to judge. The question we ask ourselves, me, you, all of us is, in the journey of our day have we accepted this love? Do we allow it to enter our lives? Will we allow God to heal us, forgive us, empower us, enlighten us? Or do we still cling to the idea that somehow I am not worthy, somehow I need to earn it.
There is another lesson to be learned though my friend. And that is, unfortunately, a tendency we can all fall into. And that is, as I look upon this church and you look at one another, we are all workers receiving the wage. And how often are we tempted to compare ourselves to others? Others who perhaps have been in the vineyard, faithful to Christ longer than us. Or the many, many who are not even here at all, as if my holiness has anything to do with your holiness.
The truth of the matter is my friends, religious observance is not the equivalent of a holy life. It is a means to a holy life. And the love of God is given to you and me so that we might be impelled with His help, to seek His will, and do it faithfully. And that is the road to holiness. That is the result of a life lived working for the Kingdom. For the ultimate wage is eternal life with Him.
So when we re-read this parable, it is not only just but wildly generous, isn’t it? That no matter where you and I are on the Journey of our Life, the day of our work, wherever we happen to be, whether our life is a mess, whether we have just begun the journey, the Gift is ours.
Who here in this church believes, then, that it is not worth working for the Kingdom having received so great a gift?
