The Generous Love of God

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.”

Sermon at St Saviour, Scarborough

If today, 21st September, wasn't a Sunday we would be commemorating St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. His greatest gift to the Church was probably his gospel so it is good that this is the year of St Matthew for the Sunday gospel readings and today we have arrived at chapter 20 - the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard with its central message of the generous love of God: "Why be envious because I am generous?"

No self respecting trade unionist would have any truck with the screaming injustice of someone starting work at 6 a.m. and working hard for 12 hours being payed the same as a labourer who only works for 1 hour but this parable is not about the law of the work place. It is about God's standards in the heavenly kingdom. As sinners saved by grace each of us is the recipient of God's lavish generosity. As St Teresa of Avila said: "We should forget the number of years we serve Him, for the sum total of all we can do is worthless by comparison with a single drop of the blood which the Lord shed for us. The more deeply we serve him, the more deeply we fall into his debt" - not he into ours!

Next Tuesday is the feast of St Pius of Petrelcina (more familiar as Padre Pio). Millions pilgrim to his tomb each year as they flocked to his home during his life. He was beatified on 2nd May 1999 and was a humble Franciscan Friar born in 1887. He received the stigmata when he was 30 years of age and died in 1968 aged 81. During his life he gave himself unstintingly to God and the people. His daily celebration of the mass lasted anything from 1 1/2 to 3 hours. He spent many further hours each day in private prayer. He devoured books and was regularly in the confessional from dawn to midday. Even during his last years when he was very weak he said "I would prefer to be brought to the confessional in a chair rather than not hear confessions anymore". At his beatification the Pope prayed: "May our Lady of Grace, whom the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina invoked with constant and tender devotion, help us to keep our gaze fixed on God. May she take us by the hand and lead us to seek wholeheartedly that supernatural charity flowing from the side of the Crucified One".

Next Saturday is the feast of a very different labourer in God's vineyard, St Vincent de Paul. He was born in France in 1581, died aged 79 on the 27th September 1660, and canonized 77 years later on. His calll to serve the forgotten of society came to him as the result of a prison visit and meeting the forgotten there. He went on to found societies to serve the poor, abandoned children, prisoners and destitute women with complete and utter selfless service believing that no one should be beyond the reach of Christian love, mercy and compassion. He saw the poor as Christ himself. It was as simple as that. It was his love for Christ, his devotion to his Saviour, which compelled him.

Christian saints, like these two, epitomise that genertous love of God so freely experienced in Christ which today's parable invites us to emulate.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve:

to give and not to count the cost:

to fight and not to heed the wounds:

to toil and not to seek for rest:

to labour and not to ask for any reward:

except that of knowing that we do your will.

(St Ignatius Loyola d.1556)