Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Ruth Maier
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, the perfection of justice is found in Your love, and all humankind is in need of Your law. Help us to find this love in each other that justice may be attained through obedience to Your law. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen
Scripture
Matthew 20: 1 – 16
Jesus told the disciples this parable: the kingdom of heaven is like the landlord 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 again at nine, noon, three and five, he again agreed with laborers to work in his vineyard for the usual daily wage. When it was evening, the owner said to his foreman, “Summons the laborers and give them their pay beginning with the last and ending with the first.” When those who stared about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of the also received the usual daily wage. On receiving it, they grumbled against the owner, saying, “These last ones worked only an hour and you have made them equal to us who bore the heat and burden of the day.”
The owner said to 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. Are you envious because I am generous?
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection
Matthew begins this Gospel Reading for today with Jesus telling the disciples another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Vineyard,” says Jesus. And the owner spends his day hiring laborers to work in his Vineyard, contracting with each of them a wage for their labor.
At the end of the day when his foreman is paying the workers their agreed upon wage, those hired at the earliest hour started grumbling when those hired at the five o’clock hour receive the same amount.
So many lessons to be learned from this parable about justice, fairness, the last being first. And we are invited to reflect upon the image of our God - as a most generous God, a God, who in the words of Isaiah: a God whose ways are not our ways.
But perhaps the most important message is about Salvation. No matter what hour we show up at the Vineyard, salvation is granted. All we need to do is come. God grants salvation to who ever comes because of God’s love and because “God’s ways are not our ways.” The love of God is for all people. So when you arrive in heaven you may be surprised at who you will meet there.
- This week consider how you have been enriched by God’s generous love.
- How might you proclaim the news of God’s generosity to those you encounter in your daily life?
Closing Prayer
Generous God, You lavish Your goodness upon us because You are with us. May we be generous as You, sharing our gifts with the lost, the desolate, with all those in need.