Contributor
Teach us Your Ways Lord
A Reflection on the Gospel of Matthew 20: 1–16
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
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.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Reflection
Have we found ourselves in the shoes of the workers who were complaining in the parable? Have we asked the same questions that they asked? Was there a time we were also complaining that what we have is not enough? Did we also question God why our neighbor has more than what we have?
In the standards of humans, God can be unfair. God can be unjust.
That kind of mentality can be traced to looking to what others have and not to what our hands already have. More often than not, our feeling of inadequacy stems from such mentality.
But God is a just and generous God. He provides what we need. Sometimes, we just feel that what we have is not enough because we overlooked what God provided to what we already have.
The First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah teaches us to trust in Lord even if sometimes we do not understand His ways. It is said,
“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.”
This Sunday the Lord challenges us to always trust His ways and wisdom for He will always be a God of justice and generosity. He never ever abandons us.
Ave Maria!
