20170924
THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF THE FATHER
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Isaiah 55:6-9 ©
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Seek the Lord while he is still to be found,
call to him while he is still near.
Let the wicked man abandon his way,
the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,
to our God who is rich in forgiving;
for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.
Yes, the heavens are as high above earth
as my ways are above your ways,
my thoughts above your thoughts.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 144(145):2-3,8-9,17-18 ©
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The Lord is close to all who call him.
I will bless you day after day
and praise your name for ever.
The Lord is great, highly to be praised,
his greatness cannot be measured.
The Lord is close to all who call him.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his creatures.
The Lord is close to all who call him.
The Lord is just in all his ways
and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their hearts.
The Lord is close to all who call him.
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Second reading
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Philippians 1:20-24,27 ©
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Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my
death. Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me
something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which
is having good results – I do not know what I should choose. I am caught
in this dilemma: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much
the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for
your sake.
Avoid
anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Lk19:38,2:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessings on the King who comes,
in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heavens!
Alleluia!
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Or
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cf.Ac16:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 20:1-16 ©
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a
landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an
agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his
vineyard. Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the
market place and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a
fair wage.” So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth
hour, he went out and did the same. Then at about the eleventh hour he went out
and found more men standing round, and he said to them, “Why have you been
standing here idle all day?” “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He
said to them, “You go into my vineyard too.” In the evening, the owner of the
vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages,
starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.” So those who were
hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each.
When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one
denarius each. They took it, but grumbled at the landowner. “The men who came
last” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as
us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.” He answered one of
them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on
one denarius? Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much
as I pay you. Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because
I am generous?” Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’
THE MERCIFUL LOVE OF THE FATHER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISA 55:6-9; PHIL 1:20-24, 27; MT 20:1-16 ]
Today’s
scripture readings invite us to reflect on the nature of God’s love and mercy so
that we can find courage to respond to the invitation of the Father.
Indeed, many people who have turned away from God are frightened and/or
reluctant to be reconciled with Him because of a false understanding
of God’s justice. Although they might have heard of the Father’s
forgiving love and mercy as proclaimed by prophet Isaiah in the first reading,
they still feel unworthy to come back to the Father’s house.
Why is this
so? The
primary reason is that most of us cannot believe that the Father can be so
forgiving. This has to do with the way we conceive of God’s
forgiveness. More often than not, we reduce the love and justice of God
to human justice. In human justice, love has to be earned or merited; and
wrongs must be punished accordingly. It is the principle of an eye for an
eye. Thus, like the workers who were employed by the landowner in the
early part of the day, and were outraged that they got the same pay as those who
were employed at the eleventh hour, we too have been brought up by conditional
love. We are skeptical of a Marxist philosophy where everybody gets the
same at the end of the day. Rather we are accustomed to being paid
according to our productivity level.
Now such
an attitude precisely was the mentality of the Jews, the scribes and
Pharisees. They were really good people who tried to be faithful to the
Torah, which they believed was given to them by God. It was their
conviction that only they were acceptable to God. Indeed, the workers who
have been working whole daylong were the Jews; and those who came late or the
eleventh hour were the sinners and Gentiles. The Jews felt that God was
unjust in giving the Gentiles the same grace and opportunity and the reward of
the Kingdom. They felt that they should be given preferential treatment
since they had been faithful to the Torah and did the work of God all their
lives. They thought it was unfair that they were placed in the same
category as the Gentiles.
Such feelings
are not peculiar to the Jews but also to those of us who have been living apparently holy
lives. Some of us are envious that those who enjoyed a sinful, unlike us,
are able to get to heaven just because they got to receive baptism or reconciliation
just before their death. The implication is that we do not understand
what being a Christian is; and that we have taken our Faith as an investment
and a means or a guarantee for a happy life after death. In other words,
we are working for that final reward.
When we look
deeper at the motives of what we do, we realize that we are selfish people. We do not really
love God but ourselves. We are not actually happy to be Catholics nor
living the Catholic way of life. We obey the laws of God in a slavish
manner as an attempt to appease Him so that we will not be harmed. By so
doing, we are treating God as a utility. Working for rewards only reduces
us to mercenaries. That is why we become jealous of others who come in
late or get the same benefits as we do. If we feel injustice, it
is because we lack love and generosity. God is not being unfair to us but
we are being selfish.
We have St
Paul as our true model of life and love. We are told in the second reading that
he was in a dilemma as to whether he should choose to stay or to go. If
St Paul were to think of his interests only, he would have gladly chosen to be
with Christ. But because he loves us, he chose to stay since what
mattered most for Paul was that he lived the life of Christ. Yes, it was
his love for Christ and us that made him put others before himself. Paul
knew that In life or in death, he could glorify God by his life of love.
This is the highest ideal of life, to work for love and with love. Work
is love made visible. The Christian’s main concern must not be rewards
but simply the joy of serving God in His vineyard, and sharing in His love.
Hence, the
first reading tells us that our thoughts are not His thoughts; our ways are not
His ways. Just as the heavens are as high above earth so His ways are above
our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. Yes, God’s way of looking
at us is simply different. His justice is a justice tempered by love.
This is pointedly brought out in today’s parable. The strong point of the
parable is that the employer took these people in and paid them the same wages
as others. This is simply unthinkable. The truth is that God is
generous. He does not work on the merit system. God does not see
justice in the way we do. God exercises justice in love. His love
is unconditional. He does not love us only because we have done something
for Him. God sees us as individuals and persons, not our products or what
we can do. God does not make use of us for Himself or His happiness.
On the contrary, He
wants to share His love with us. So we cannot earn His love. His love for
us is not meritorious. We must be careful not to confuse making
ourselves worthy of His love with reciprocating His love. Even before we
love Him, He has already loved us. Even before we make ourselves worthy
for the reward of eternal life, He has already given it to us. Yes, God
loves us all, irrespective of who we are. He wants all to be in His
kingdom. His love excludes no one. Even if we come in at the last
hour, His door is always open. He wants everyone to enjoy the happiness
of the Kingdom. This is a source of consolation rather than
desolation. If God were to treat us according to strict justice, we would
all be punished. The truth is that we are all to a certain or greater
extent, the 11th hour worker. We all stand to merit God’s
extraordinary goodness.
Furthermore, we
must realize that for those of us who are already in the kingdom, we
should be more than happy that others join us no matter how late they are.
Instead of grudging them the opportunity, we should be truly grateful that we
have the privilege of entering the kingdom before them. What we are today
is not a result of what we have done but is due to the grace of God. This
consideration should make us humble and grateful. When we think of God’s
gratuitous love for us, this should make us generous with others. Instead
of feeling jealous, we must be compassionate with those who have found Christ
in their lives. We should be grateful that God has called us, or else
like many people, we would still be sitting in the marketplace living an
aimless and purposeless life. We should be grateful for such a grace.
All the more
then, we should help those who have not yet found life by helping them to find
God and serve Him as well in love. For by coming late, they have missed out
what we already are enjoying. This of course necessitates that we
understand Christian life not as a reward at the end of this life but that this
kingdom which Christ has come to give us, begins the moment we live the life of
Christ. We must avoid thinking that the reward of the kingdom is
only at the end of this life. Rather, it begins here and now but fully at
the end of our lives. When we love God and experience His love and
love others in return, then the kingdom has already begun. Loving and
being with God and working in His kingdom is itself the reward already.
The reward at the end of this life is simply a greater love and union with
God. The reward has already been given in installments. If
that is so, there is no reason to feel that God has treated us unfairly since
grace has been given to us before them.
Nevertheless, we
must be careful not to take this gospel as an approval for those who come in
late. It is not meant to bring comfort to the lazy and the
dodger. On the contrary, we must know that those who were employed later
in the day or at the 11th hour were certainly not lazy
people. It is simply that they were not employed. We must not
misunderstand the gospel. The situation of those days was that the market
place was like our modern labour exchange. Men went there in the early
morning and waited for an employer to come along. If an employer needed
some workers, he would go to the market place and look at what was on
offer. Of course, only the cream of workers is employed.
Consequently, what was left at the 11th hour were the rejects
and the left-overs whom nobody would employ. These were the unskilled
casual workers. They belonged therefore to the lowest class of
people. But they were certainly people who were
sincere. Consequently, the parable is speaking of those who through no
fault of theirs could not find God because they had not yet received the
grace. In other words, these people are not so privileged as we are.
Like them, we
are called to be open if we have not yet received the grace of faith. Like them, we must
wait patiently. We must be docile and be open like the 11th hour
workers. We need not grow resentful that others have the grace before
us. God has His reasons and timing. The waiting is part of our spiritual
purification because patience will help us to value the faith even more once we
find it. In that waiting, we will experience the difference of living in
God’s love and living without His love. Through waiting, we can better
appreciate what is given to us later. If not, like the Jews who have
inherited the faith, instead of being grateful, they claimed it as their
rights. So that waiting and privation actually can help us to understand
and experience God’s power and love more powerfully.
So sinners or
the self-righteous, the gospel message is for us all: we must never doubt God’s
mercy nor try to merit God’s love. His love is unconditional and
total. All we need to do is to be open to His mercy and love; and with
that experience, we will be empowered to share that mercy and love with
others. Reciprocating the love of God is what is required; not earning
His love.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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