Each in his own time

Gospel of the Day (Matthew 20:1-16)

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, he 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, he 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."

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Reflections:

Each in his own time

«You also go to my vineyard.» My brethren, you may perhaps ask why all these laborers were not sent into the Lord's vineyard at the same time? I reply that God's intention was to call them all at once. But they hadn't wanted to come as soon as they were called at the first hour and this was the cause of their refusal. That was why God himself went to call each one individually... at the moment when he thought they might turn back and respond to his invitation.

This is what the apostle Paul clearly notes with regard to himself: «When it pleased God, he set me apart in my mother's womb,» (cf Gal 1,15). When was it that it pleased God if not when he saw that Paul would surrender to his call? God would have liked to have called him, to be sure, at the beginning of his life, but because Paul would not have responded to his voice, God opted not to call him until he saw that he would respond. In the same way, God did not call the good thief until the last moment even though he could have done so earlier if he had foreseen that the man would have surrendered to his call.

And so, if the laborers of the parable say that no one hired them, we must remember God's patience... He himself demonstrates well enough that, for his part, he had done all he could to make it possible for all to come to him from the very first hour of the day. Thus Jesus' parable makes us see that people give themselves to God at very different ages. And God desires before all else to prevent those who were called first from despising the last.

Source: Daily Gospel