“These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.” Matthew 20:12
“It’s not fair!” This would most likely be our response to today’s Gospel. We listen to the events, place ourselves in the shoes of those who labored from dawn, and immediately, like them, ask how the landowner’s pay was just. We would agree with them that the laborers who came later shouldn’t have earned the same pay as those who came earlier. Afterall, hourly labor laws would suggest that one gets paid based on the hours worked. Yet, today, we find out that it’s not the way God works. We can’t limit God’s generosity and infinite mercy. God is in control of it and not us. It’s been said that “his radical generosity of mercy helps the sinner to have confidence that it’s never too late to turn back; it’s never too late to come home.” All isn’t lost, and that, brothers and sisters should be good news to all … again, it’s never too late to come home; it’s never too late to reconcile, and it’s never too late to come back to Church – that’s his message to us today, a hopeful message no less. If God relied on human laws around wages to dispense his mercy, we would be in trouble; instead, this message of hope is comforting to all because how often do we fail? How often do we find ourselves coming late to God’s will? Or maybe not us … how about a loved one who has been away from the faith for a period of time? We hold out hope that they would return; we hold out hope that God is merciful to them like the landowner was to those who came later. I’m sure if that was the case, we would want his justice and not human justice. We would then do good this week to offer thanks and praise to God for his incredible mercy, which gives each of us more than we deserve and hope of salvation.
On Monday, we celebrate the feast of Saint Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist, who given to us a good example of God’s infinite mercy at work. Here’s the tax collector, a man who in his time was despised because he worked with the Romans and pressed upon his own people, extorting their money for the Romans – yet Jesus showed him God’s mercy and even chose him as an apostle. May Saint Matthew be for us an example of this hope and mercy. Saint Matthew, the Apostle, pray for us.
In Christ
Fr Robert Marquez
Pastor of Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Community