Introit
Kyrie
Gloria
Collect
O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law
upon love of you and of our neighbor,
grant that, by keeping your precepts,
we may merit to attain eternal life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Reading Is 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. 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.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3,8-9,17-18
R/. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable. R/.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works. R/.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth. R/.
Second Reading Phil 1:20c-24,27a
Brothers and sisters: Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better. Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Alleluia cf. Acts 16:14b
Gospel Mt 20:1-16a
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.
Catena Nova
The Gospel story about the vineyard workers is appropriate to this time of year, the season of the earthly grape harvest. But there is also another harvest, the spiritual one, at which God rejoices in the fruits of his vineyard.... At the end of the world all Christians, called at the eleventh hour, will receive the joy of resurrection....In that great reward, then, we shall all be equal—the first to the last and the last to the first. For the denarius stands for eternal life, in which all will have the same share. Although through diversity of merit some will shine more brilliantly than others, in the possession of eternal life there will be equality. What is endless for all will not be longer for one and shorter for another. What has no bounds will have none either for you or for me. Those who lived chastely in the married state will have one kind of splendor; virgins will have another. The reward for good works will differ from the crown of martyrdom; but where eternal life is concerned there can be no question of more or less for anyone. Whatever may be the individual’s degree of glory, each one will live in it eternally. This is the meaning of the denarius (St. Augustine).
We may also see in these same varying hours the changing of the years in the life of every person. For the morning is the childhood of our reason. The third hour can be interpreted as adolescence, because while the heat of youth increases, it is as though the sun mounts higher in the sky. The sixth hour is young adulthood, because as the sun is now as it were in its zenith, so now is the full strength of adulthood attained. Mature age is signified by the ninth hour, in which the sun descends from its highest point, because in that age humanity already declines from the heat of youth. The eleventh hour is that time of life which is called senility or old age... Because therefore one person is called to the good life in childhood, another in youth, another in adulthood, another in later life, another in old age, the labourers are as it were called at different hours to the Vineyard. Therefore, dearly beloved, look to your manner of living, and see whether even now you are labourers of God (Pope St Gregory the Great).
Observe in the parable the Master of the Vineyard did but one thing. He told his servant to "call the labourers and give them their hire." He did but ask what they had done. He did not ask what their opinion was about science, or about art, or about the means of wealth, or about public affairs; he did not ask them if they knew the nature of the vine for which they had been labouring. They were not required to know how many kinds of vines there were in the world, and what countries vines could grow in, and where they could not. They were not called upon to give their opinion what soils were best for the vines. They were not examined in the minerals, or the shrubs, or in anything else which was found in the vineyard, but this was the sole question, whether they had worked in the vineyard. First they must be in the vineyard, then they must work in it; these were the two things. So will it be with us after death. When we come into God's presence, we shall be asked two things, whether we were in the Church, and whether we worked in the Church. Everything else is worthless. Whether we have been rich or poor, whether we have been learned or unlearned, whether we have been prosperous or afflicted, whether we have been sick or well, whether we have had a good name or a bad one, all this will be far from the work of that day. The single question will be, are we Catholics and are we good Catholics? If we have not been, it will avail nothing that we have been ever so honoured here, ever so successful, have had ever so good a name. And if we have been, it will matter nothing though we have been ever so despised, ever so poor, ever so hardly pressed, ever so troubled, ever so unfriended. Christ will make up everything to us, if we have been faithful to Him; and He will take everything away from us, if we have lived to the world....How different persons will then seem, from what they seem now! How will the last be first, and the first last! Then those whom the world looked up to, will be brought low, and those who were little esteemed, will be exalted. Then will it be found who are the real movers in the world's affairs, those who sustained the cause of the Church or who influenced the fortunes of empires, were not the great and powerful, not those whose names are known in the world, but the humble despised followers of the Lamb, the meek saint, the man full of prayer and good works whom the world passed by; the hidden band of saintly witnesses, whose voice day by day ascended to Christ; the sufferers who seemed to be living for nothing; the poor whom the proud world thought but an offence and a nuisance (St. John Henry Newman).
It makes no difference whether people are good or evil in the sight of God, because they are all in need of God's mercy. It makes no difference whether they have laboured long or briefly in the vineyard, the first is as much in need of divine grace as the last. It is because the first are so greatly tempted to forget this that they frequently become last and the last first (Reinhold Niebuhr).
One parable that everyone is familiar with is the story of the man coming to work at the last hour, who gets paid as much as the one that comes at the first hour (Matthew 20:1-16). Let’s be honest, none of us worker-bees appreciate that story. We’re good, well-trained Americans. We all say, “Thanks be to God” at Mass when we hear this Gospel read, but we don’t really like it or believe it. It’s not the way we think; it’s not the way you and I have organized the world. Such a parable as this should be a clear signal that Jesus is presenting a very different world-view than the achievement contest of Western capitalism....Parables aim to subvert our old consciousness and offer us a way through by utterly reframing our worldview. So often the biblical text is not a transformative document and does not bring about a “new creation,” because we pull it inside of our own security systems and what we call “common sense.” At that point, no divine breakthrough is possible. Frankly speaking, much of Scripture, then, has become largely harmless and forgettable (Richard Rohr).
Our strongest resistance to forgiveness is that it just isn’t fair. It blows apart everything we think we know and believe about the economics of life. We think everything has a price, or should. We instinctively keep a tally of what we owe and what is owed us. Usually the latter is much higher than the former. This tally makes up a huge amount of our identity, an identity that forgiveness shows to be totally false. The tally is a desperate attempt to separate ourselves from others by letting the figures on our running tally come between us and them. This keeps mimetic rivalry alive and well. (And keeps us not so well.) The Parable of the Vineyard Workers (Mt. 20:1-16) speaks to this resistance. The workers who worked all day grumble when they get only the day’s wage they agreed on after the workers called in at the last hour of the day got the same day’s wage. I think all of us identify with the grumbling workers. The master sees the problem and seems to shrug his shoulders and say with a divine smile: “This is how I operate. Get used to it.” God’s economy takes a lot of getting used to. We are wise to start practicing now (Andrew Marr).
With this parable, Jesus wants to open our hearts to the logic of the Father’s love which is free and generous. It is about allowing oneself to be astonished and fascinated by the “thoughts” and the “ways” of God which, as the Prophet Isaiah recalls, are not our thoughts and not our ways (cf Is 55:8). Human thoughts are often marked by selfishness and personal advantages, and our narrow and contorted paths are not comparable to the wide and straight streets of the Lord. He uses mercy — do not forget this: He uses mercy —, he forgives broadly, is filled with generosity and kindness which he pours forth on each of us. He opens for everyone the boundless territory of his love and his grace, which alone can give the human heart the fullness of joy. Jesus wants to make us contemplate the gaze of that landowner: the gaze with which he looks upon each of the labourers searching for work and calls them to go to his vineyard. It is a gaze which is filled with attention, kindness. It is a gaze which calls, invites one to get up and begin a journey because he wants life for each of us; he wants a full, committed life, safe from emptiness and inertia. God excludes no one and wants each of us to achieve his or her fullness. This is the love of our God, of our God who is Father (Pope Francis).
Homily
Wage Equality
Among the many interpreters of the provocative parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is Pope St. Gregory the Great who compared the different times of day in which the workers were hired to “the changing of the years in the life of every person.” The models of the Christian life from every period in the church’s history whose names have been added to the canon of saints certainly bears this out. The following exemplars are a tiny fraction of those who could be cited. I introduce each selection form their respective age cohort with the words of Gregory.
Morning is the childhood of our reason. Here we find people such St. Dominic Savio (+1857), young disciple of St. John Bosco, whose youthful piety and early death from pleurisy at 14 years while studying for the priesthood made him the first non-martyr saint to be canonized at so young an age. He paved the way for other child-saints such as siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto (+1919, +1920), two of the three reputed visionaries of Fatima believed by many to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary in a series of apparitions in 1917; the former died at 10 and the latter at 9 years of age not long after the events.
The third hour can be interpreted as adolescence, because while the heat of youth increases, it is as though the sun mounts higher in the sky. Such was St. Joan of Arc (+1431), the celebrated Maid of Orleans, who led French forces to defeat the English during the Hundred Year’s War and who was burned at the stake on trumped up charges of heresy at the age of 19. More recently there is Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (+1925) – the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes” -- whose profound spiritual life and generous care of the poor, coupled with political activism, athleticism and love of the arts, has led him to be counted among youthful models of holiness in the 20th Century and who died of polio at the age of 24.
The sixth hour is young adulthood, because as the sun is now as it were in its zenith, so now is the full strength of adulthood attained. Here St. Francis of Assisi (+1226), who died at the age of 44 -- church reformer, founder of a vast religious family with multiple branches, beloved patron of animals and the environment – comes to mind. While a century later, it’s hard to believe St. Catherine of Siena (+1380) -- mystic, papal critic and confidante, peacemaker between warring Italian city-states, and doctor of the church -- was only 33 years old when she died, accomplishing so much in a relatively short lifespan.
Mature age is signified by the ninth hour, in which the sun descends from its highest point, because in that age humanity already declines from the heat of youth. Pope St. Gregory (+540) himself, dying at the age of 64, was among the most illustrious bishops of Rome, an able administrator who provided much needed assistance to the city under threat of invasion, prolific author, sponsor of the mission to the British Isles, and curator of the Western liturgy including the chant that bears his name. Then there’s St. Edith Stein (+1942), convert, philosopher, Carmelite nun, and one of the many martyrs who, in the crematoria of Auschwitz and other concentration camps, fell victim to Nazi persecution – in her case, owing to her Jewish heritage.
(It might be of interest to observe here that throughout history, excluding those who were martyrs, male saints had a mean longevity of 69.9 years and female saints 58.1 years; cf. Robert Kastenbaum; “The Age of Saintliness and the Saintliness of Age,” International Journal of Aging and Human Development, March 1, 1990). Late middle-agers take note!
Finally, the eleventh hour is that time of life which is called senility or old age. St. Alphonsus Liguori (+1787) – moral theologian, founder of the Redemptorist community, author of many popular devotional works, bishop of a small Italian diocese and church reformer – died at the age of 90 after suffering for 20 years with rheumatic arthritis which eventually left him unable to bend his neck with his chin causing constant pressure on his chest. In our own time, Mother Theresa of Kolkata (+1997) continued her service to the “poorest of the poor” together with the Missionaries of Charity she founded until her death at the age of 87 – despite years of declining health coupled with decades of interior struggles and doubts, even about the existence of God.
Therefore one person is called to the good life in childhood, another in youth, another in adulthood, another in later life, another in old age, the labourers are as it were called at different hours to the Vineyard. Therefore, dearly beloved, look to your manner of living, and see whether even now you are labourers of God (Pope St Gregory the Great).
Creed
Intercessions (Mary Grace Melcher)
For our shepherds in the church, that for them Christ may be magnified in all things, as they give Him their fruitful labor for the benefit of the faithful.
That God, whose thoughts are far above our thoughts, may direct the minds of world leaders to decisions for life, justice, morality, and as a result, peace.
For the conversion of those who have wandered far from God, especially those among our loved ones, that they may turn to the Lord for mercy, and to God, who is generous in forgiving.
That we may not begrudge God His generous mercy with the latecomers to His vineyard, but rejoice together with them that we have found such a good Master.
For all who need our prayers in a time of sickness, poverty, hardship, or bereavement, that our gracious and merciful Lord may show them His compassion in healing and strength.
For our faithful ones who have departed this life, that they may be with Christ in the kingdom of love and joy that is heaven.
God most high, your ways are not our ways, for your kindness is lavished equally upon all. Teach us to welcome your mercy toward others, even as we hope to receive mercy ourselves. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Offertory Hymn (Roc O’Connor)
Seek the Lord, while He may be found;
call to Him while he is still near.
Today is the day, and now the proper hour
to forsake our sinful lives and turn to the Lord.
As high as the sky is above the earth,
so high above our ways, the ways of the Lord.
Finding the Lord, let us cling to Him.
His words, his ways lead us to life.
Someday we'll live in the house of God,
Gaze on His face and praise His name.
Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray for the coming of God's reign as Jesus taught....
Spiritual Communion (Church of England)
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits you have given me, or all the pains and insults you have borne for me. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, I ask you to come spiritually into my heart. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.
Communion Antiphon
Closing Hymn (Marty Haugen)
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him;
Spirit of love, come, give us the mind of Jesus, teach us the wisdom of God.
When pain and sorrow weigh us down, be near to us, O Lord,
forgive the weakness of our faith, and bear us up within your peaceful word.
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him;
Spirit of love, come, give us the mind of Jesus, teach us the wisdom of God.
Our lives are but a single breath, we flower and we fade,
yet all our days are in your hands, so we return in love what love has made.
Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him;
Spirit of love, come, give us the mind of Jesus, teach us the wisdom of God.