9/24/2023 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

MEETING THE GOD OF SURPRISES
During my Bible Study with people in the parishes, I have found that the Parable of the vineyard workers from Mathew 20:1-16 is a story that annoys a lot of people rather than inspire. Their sense of justice seems to put the landowner in some bad light. Here is a retelling of this story in the Mediterranean cultural context.

Judah Bensirah, is a day laborer who has been struggling to find work because of the influx of laborer’s from the North. He was lucky during the harvest seasons of barley, wheat, and figs. During the past week, due to his good connections he found work in the vineyard of a kind landowner not too far from home. Every day he came home with wheat flour and figs and once this week he even brought home a leg of lamb. Miriam his wife, a prayerful housewife would gather around their five children in thanking Yahweh for this good fortune. He shared with Miriam how he felt privileged to be working in the vineyard of this landowner, who even provided the workers with a midday meal and fresh drinking water.

In the following week Miriam noticed that though Judah brought in adequate supplies of food for the following days, he seemed to be very annoyed. Getting him to talk about what was happening at work was difficult as he dismissed her saying, “You won’t even understand the injustice I saw today.” After the meal and the maariv (evening) prayer, Miriam finally got her husband to talk. Judah told her how he was hired as usual early in the morning and worked through the day. To his surprise he found that at various hours of the day new workers were joining them, including Joshua Benasher, their distant relative he had recently quarreled with, who worked just one hour. “Everyone was given the equal daily wage of one denarius, we who worked whole a day and those others who worked much less.” Miriam was quick to see where the disappointment came from. She reminded her husband how they had struggled in the previous vintage season and any work was undertaken to put food on the table. “Think of those families Judah as they sit around the table tonight, how they do not have to go to bed hungry because a landowner was generous!”

The parable of the vineyard laborers is shocking. The landowner who gave the same wage to those who worked for an hour in the evening as to those who work all day seems quite odd to our human rational way of thinking. God obviously doesn't have human mental processes. When we consider justice, we typically think in terms of fairness and deservingness. So, we can justify giving more to those who have been working harder for longer. God, however, does not think that way. When God considers justice, he considers the worth and worthiness of human beings and their right to a good life. Everyone is given the same opportunity to succeed in life, regardless of whether they show up on time or not. No one is deprived of anything, but everyone is accorded respect due a person endowed with inherent worth. This is the justice of God. To paraphrase the Lord: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways." Maybe if we followed God's rules, the world would be a better place. After all, we can't say that about ourselves, while "the Lord is just in all His ways."

The parable contradicts conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between effort and pay. In Jesus’ story, we hear the landowner asking, "Is your eye evil because I am good?" Among the characteristics of an "evil eye" in the Mediterranean culture is a tendency toward envy and invidious comparison. The Latin root of the word for "evil eye" is invidere, which means "to look with envy." “Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.” Og Mandino. Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O