Homily for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

With the national economic situation the way it is, Our Lord’s little story about the Landowner’s “economic stimulus package,” bringing about the immediate economic recovery of the under-employed vineyard workers may seem especially poignant.

But the Parable is not really about the fiscal economy; it is about the “economy of salvation,” the word “economy” here developed from the Greek oikoinomia, which means “long-term plan.” And, by long-term, we’re talking about eternity: God’s plan for us and how He intends to link our lives in the present moment to His gift of Eternal Life.

The Parable originally referred to this long-term plan already in action for 3,000 years among God’s Chosen People when Jesus arrives on the scene, and how the Jews looked at the Gentiles who were converting as late-comers and, therefore, in justice, would seem to deserve less from God.

The Chosen People had endured
+ slavery in Egypt
+ wandering in the desert
+ exile in Babylon…

… and now, here come these pagan converts who had suffered little or nothing as they enter Judaism on their way to Christianity… and they are to be given the same wage, the same gift of salvation without having earned it?

Precisely!  This is exactly what Jesus means.

Seen in light of today’s Gospel passage, the day-long vineyard-workers’ view of the work they’ve done demonstrates that they believed that salvation cannot be received as gift; it must be earned. However, the Landowner’s generosity shows the falsehood of this position. Salvation is a free gift of God and not possible for us human beings to attain on our own.

Whether we come early or late to the vineyard of faith does not increase or decrease chances for receiving this gift. It’s the final arrival at… the acceptance of…and the living in… the faith that counts.

So, the gift of salvation is not given solely to the original Chosen People because they have endured much in their fidelity to the Covenant, nor is salvation to be given solely to the new Chosen People simply because they had the good fortune of meeting Jesus in person. Salvation is God’s freely-given gift to those who, at whatever point in their life freely choose to accept God and work with Him in His “economy” — His long-term plan for salvation.

To bring this point home, we will look at it in two ways:
1) God’s merciful Providence
2) Our grateful reception of this Providence — coupled with our joy in other people’s salvation.

For both of these we will have to set aside our own pre-conceived notions concerning how God works, in order to understand this Parable in the context of God’s own words revealed to us by the Prophet Isaiah: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”

The Providence of God in the Economy of Salvation

The Landowner promises the workers who go early into the vineyard, “I will pay you what is just.” And at the end of the day, that is what he does. But then, as we heard, he gives the latecomers a full day’s wage which causes the all-day laborers to grouse about injustice and unfairness, understandably so.

Why would the Landowner do something seemingly unjust and economically unfeasible ? Because he knew  that a day’s wage provided a day’s-worth of food: the late-comers would go home with an insufficiency to provide for their family that day. In an act of unwarranted generosity, he provided people with what they needed, not necessarily what they earned.

Since this Parable is delivered to teach us about God the Father, then we can surmise: If God appears to be acting with injustice, then there must be a higher good than justice. There is.That higher good is mercy.

Justice and mercy are not natural human instincts, nor are they mutually exclusive. These virtues, and their ultimate importance are revealed gradually from the mind of God over many centuries: Remember what we heard God say through Isaiah “My thoughts are not your thoughts…”

From the mind of God and through the intervention in the world of the Chosen People, mankind is purified in gradual steps, and moves human interaction from vengeance… through justice… to mercy.

Vengeance is a pagan value based in tribalism, or in ultra-nationalism. It would be a matter of honor to avenge a wrongdoing which always brings, not satisfaction of a wrong, but an escalation of violence. For example: if someone from their tribe killed a member of our tribe, we would be duty-bound to retaliate. And not only that, we would kill two members of their tribe in order to honor our fallen hero, thus escalating violence through vengeance, a purported virtue.

Then, along come the Jews, who, along with God’s help, pretty much invent the virtue of justice and introduce it to the world. Justice now brings a de-escalation of violence with the maxim: “an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth,” yet lawful violence remains.

So, this introduction of justice as virtue, is not just about retributive justice; or punishment for a perceived wrong, it expands into everyday living and introduces the positive notion of giving people what they deserve in respect for their human dignity. Hence, Jewish laws about caring for widows, orphans and vagabonds as a matter of justice, giving them their due.

And then… Our Lord appears, teaching, with this Parable, about Divine Mercy, that God grants what we need for our salvation, not what we believe we deserve or earn for our earthly life. He answers our prayers, with His long-term plan for salvation in His mind.

Our Lord Jesus teaches us that thus we should emulate God: not escalating hurt or violence in vengeance as a means of defending honor, nor simply giving people what we think they deserve in justice (such as a punch in the nose), but giving people what they truly need for their temporal well-being, and especially for their eternal salvation. This is where Charity moves past mere altruism: Charity is the basis for the “economy” of salvation.

Our Grateful Reception of Divine Providence
… coupled with our joy in other people’s salvation

Saint Thomas à Kempis wrote this in his prayer journal: “All that we have in souls and body, all that we possess in nature and spirit came from you, O Lord, and evidence you as our Benefactor. Though some may receive more and others, less,
everything comes from You, and without You, we have nothing. The one who has more should not boast as though what he has, he has by his own merit. The one who has less should not be sad or angry, nor envy the one who has more. You know, O Lord, what is best to give each one.” (He speaks here not of temporal goods,  but of the Grace we need for our lives here on earth, as well as in our hope for eternal life.) The cure for envy, either temporal or spiritual, is gratefulness.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux once wrote of spiritual envy: As a child, she wanted to become a great saint, but found herself lacking in personal holiness. She asked her Mother for help in attaining holiness like that of the great saints. Her Mother then went into the kitchen and brought back a tumbler and a thimble.

Her Mother, (who is now also a canonized Saint) told her that holiness cannot be measured. So she had young Thérèse hold both the tumbler and the thimble. She then brought a pitcher of water and said to her daughter, “Imagine that this water is grace. You are the thimble, and the great saints are the tumbler.” She then filled both the thimble and the tumbler to the top of each, and said, pointing to the thimble and tumbler, “This is you and the great saints in heaven, both filled to the brim with Grace. But in heaven the thimble will not envy the tumbler.”

God’s long-term economic plan for each of us is eternal salvation. Each of us may arrive at salvation in a manner unique to us, but recognized by God in His eternal plan. So, we should neither presume upon God’s mercy nor envy His goodness to others, but, as Saint Paul says as a closing statement, “Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ.”