25th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Philippians 1: 20-24, 27
Matthew 20: 1-16
“Are you envious
because I am generous?”
Today,
Jesus gives again another parable: The Parable of the Workers in the
Vineyard. But we must understand that just like many other parables, this
parable had been taught in different settings: first, as told by Jesus himself;
second, as transmitted by oral tradition; third, as written and addressed by
the evangelist to his community. Thus, we can notice variations in emphasis and
some exaggerations. Although parables truly resemble real life situations, at
times they get a little bit far from human experience. Such is the case of our
parable today. So, one thing is to understand it from mere human perspective
and another thing is to discover its richness by looking at it from a more
divine perspective.
1.
From mere human perspective, the parable really seems to pose a quarrel between
justice and generosity. True, there seems to be clear agreement between the
owner and the workers that the latter be given a full day’s wage. It is also
true that the workers indeed were paid as agreed. And still it is true that the
owner has all the right to do with his money. After all, he paid them per agreement.
But
the concept of justice does not end within the definitions of commutative and
proportionate justice where the fair dealings simply rotate between the
employer and the individual employee, or as in our case in the parable, between
the owner of the vineyard and the individual hired worker. Our understanding
today regarding social justice takes a more extensive sense. It
questions whether there is fairness among employees themselves and among the
employers, among the labor force and among the management personnel; whether
they are treated fairly in the social sense. And in the parable, it is
quite evident that something falls short from the imperatives of social
justice. Even its mere presentation, which seems to have been exaggerated,
invites some doubts and questions whether the parable really intends to picture
a concrete life situation. Where in the world can you find an owner who has no
idea of how many workers do he need for his vineyard? Should he really go out
and hire four times and hire them even at the close of the day? And when the
paying time comes, why should he let those hired first wait for so long to be
paid last? It’s double burden! And finally, the most hurting thing comes when
all of them are given the same payment. Those who labored less is paid as much
as those who labored much.
Where
is social justice there? There could be fairness between the owner and the
individual worker, but not between the workers themselves or between the owner
and the workers as a whole. We must remember that any rich man who squanders
his money does not sin personally since it is his money that he squanders
anyway. But the same rich man can never escape from social sin because while he
squanders his wealth, there are millions of poor people who could hardly eat.
This runs similar to our parable. Of course, one may argue and say “to
squander” is certainly different from “to be generous.” But is that real
generosity, which only attends to the less worked latecomers, but forgets to
give even just a little bonus to those who labored the whole day and patiently
took their turns in the line? On the first place, why call it “a full-day’s
wage” when the labor worth is only half-day or a quarter of a day? The extra
should have been called “a half- day bonus” and thus making the owner
really generous. Bonus is unmerited and thus is out of justice. So, why
call himself generous while insisting to have given wages? But granting that it
is still generosity, normal human sentiments can never take it because even the
most ignorant country folks will know from their hearts that something is
socially unjust. Make this parable a true human experience and be sure that in
the next round of hiring no one comes in the morning when you know you get the
same payment when you come late in the afternoon? --- And in the case, this
parable would not be teaching any good lesson at all!
2.
Taken from a mere human perspective, therefore, this parable certainly creates
a big trouble. But not if this same parable is understood from a more divine
perspective. And just the way the parable is told to us, we discover that the
noble intention of the storyteller is to teach us the following lessons.
a.
Grace is gratuitous. It overflows from the generosity of God. The wage
stands for grace given by God personified by the vineyard owner, and
given to us (workers) regardless of who we are. The same grace is needed by all
to attain eternal life. Thus, there is no such thing as “his grace is much
better than my grace.” And whether it is given in the morning, noon or late
in the afternoon, it does not make any difference at all. What perhaps makes
the difference is when one has and the other has none. And that’s the greatest
concern of God. He does not want to lose even just a single soul. So, he gives
his grace gratuitously from the bounty of his love. In this sense, we see that
the wages are given according to the generosity of the owner and not
according to workers’ amount of labor.
b.
Grace is given at any time in man’s life: in the morning, at noon, in the
afternoon or just before sunset. Sometimes, it puzzles us why there are some
whose “heavenly innocence” starts right from the moment of their childhood
while others realize to “come home” only at their middle ages. Or else, we find
some others whose hearts seem obstinate. No matter how other people pray for
them, they seem not to learn what conversion is until at the very late
afternoon of their lives or perhaps just before the sun sets in.
This fact simply shows that whereas the call to perfection is a
life-long challenge, God dispenses his grace in the most opportune time. But as
to when will this opportune time be, he alone knows it. Sometimes we are
puzzled and worried, become discouraged and cynical. But surely, God has his
own time, which is quite different from ours. The parable has one great
consolation. The owner goes out early in the morning and goes out still in the
very late afternoon with one purpose: to hire workers. This goes to say
that in his providence no one can ever protest: “No one has hired us.”
God comes even at the last minute just to hire us!
c.
This parable, therefore, wants to teach us the beauty of a very practical “theology.”
Let me call it the “Theology of the Finish Line.” Although by human
standards this seems strange and unfair, yet the most venerable intention of
God to save all souls makes the highest justification of this theology. We are
all taught to make a good start. That’s pretty good. But a good start does not
surely win the race. A good starter may falter in the middle or somewhere along
the road. What makes the final victory is the finish line. One may have
a very poor start, and yet he gets at the finish line just exactly on
time. That’s victory! Remember Dimas?