Monday, September 21, 2020

What Does God Owe Us? (25th Sunday, Year A)

To listen to this homily, click here.

A story is told about a woman waiting for her connecting flight in an airport. She had a “red-eye” flight and had to kill time in the terminal until midnight. She was tired and hungry and the nourishment she settled on was a box of cookies at the Hudson News bookstore. She sat down and opened her carry-on, searching for her book. A man sat down next to her and, almost immediately, opened the box of cookies and ate one of them! This upset the woman but she didn’t want to create a scene. Besides, she thought, “Well, he is only eating one.” But then he took another one. Rather than get into an argument, the woman simply took one herself. Then he took one and she took another. This continued until there was only one cookie left. The man picked up the final cookie and said to the woman, “Would you like to split it with me?” She was so furious that she grabbed it out of his hand, took her bag and stormed away. When she got on the plane, she was still fuming and mumbling insults about the hungry hog that offended her. Before she sat down, she reached into her bag to find her book. What she pulled out was the box of cookies which she had bought!


The man she was angry with turned out to be the generous one. Which is similar to what we see in today’s parable. We can get mad at Jesus about this parable and think how unfair it is to pay everyone working in the vineyard the same amount. Somehow we feel entitled to be compensated for every little bit of work we do for God and His Kingdom, as if God owes us something. It gets even worse when we start comparing ourselves to other people. Why do they get more money, better health, more opportunities, less suffering, and better looks?! Doesn’t God know that they haven’t sacrificed, prayed, or worked as hard as me?!


However, this angry, self-pitying attitude is based on the false belief that God owes us something in the first place. In truth, God owes us nothing at all, not even our existence; much less the comforts, blessings, mercy, and love we enjoy throughout our time here on earth. In relation to God, everything is a gift. It all belongs to him. When we stand before God, we cannot demand any rights or entitlements. For the workers in today’s Gospel it seemed unfair that the ones who worked only an hour got the same pay as the ones who worked the entire day. But that presupposes we have a right to work for God in the first place. If we can humble ourselves and take a step back, we would see that simply being invited to work in the vineyard on behalf of the Lord is an honor and privilege we don’t deserve. That He offers to reward us for this honor is generous beyond our comprehension. This might be the first lesson of the parable: God owes us nothing. It is an honor to work for him. He can share his gifts in any amount or way he desires; whatever we receive from him is a blessing and we will only find unhappiness when we look around, comparing ourselves and what we have received to others. 


We can also learn something from the workers who waited, hoping to be chosen to enter the vineyard. Day laborers, in Jesus’ time as well as ours, didn’t have the security of consistent work and benefits like so many of us enjoy. All they could do is present themselves at the market in the hopes that an opportunity would find them and they could earn something to feed themselves and their families. We can imagine that those who did not get picked early in the morning were extremely disappointed. How many days had they returned home, ashamed, hungry and empty-handed? They had to make a choice: Would they continue to wait or seek more pleasant surroundings? The day was getting hot and it would be easy to give up, call it a day, and feel sorry for themselves. The more desperate might stay until noon. The remarkable thing in today’s Gospel is that some of the laborers waited until five in the afternoon. What sane person would expect someone to hire them for just a few minutes worth of work?! 


In some ways, the waiting and hoping are more difficult than working. When it comes to God, our blessings are not necessarily tied to how long or hard we work. Which is not to make light of the many selfless and dedicated people who serve God day in and day out; God will not be outdone in generosity in blessing their faithfulness. But, what is most important is how faithfully and patiently we wait for God’s invitation to join him in the vineyard. Some of us will be called early in the day, others halfway through, and some right at the end. Don’t worry about when or how God invites others. Just take care of presenting yourself every day for service to him. That is what prayer is all about, patiently, consistently, humbly listening to God and making ourselves available to him! It’s not hard to do but it sure is difficult with the many other voices, distractions, and false masters that call out to us in our society. 


What are some practical ways to help us be waiting and ready to accept the invitation from God?  Don’t spend hours and hours in front of a screen, gorging on mindless entertainment or pointless wandering online. We should learn to be comfortable with some degree of quiet and solitude, which are most often where God chooses to speak to us personally. We should work to get rid of any and all addictions with the help of God and people who love us. Indispensable are things like solid reading that feeds our minds, listening to talks and music which lift our spirits, cultivating healthy friendships, considering what other people (especially our elders and even those who have different world-views) say to us. Any and all of these practices will help us refine the virtue of patient listening with God.


Let’s thank the Lord, today and every day, for his extravagant generosity. When we are called is not as important as how generously we respond. God wants each of us working in his vineyard. He has a job for each one of us to do. It is not important that we are all invited to do different things at different times. It does not matter that we are rewarded in different ways. What really matters is that God is asking each of us to be laborers in the vineyard. Listen patiently, consistently, and prayerfully every day; and respond with your whole heart to God’s offer. He will pay us infinitely more than we deserve.