Sunday, September 22, 2014
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Joseph Eddy, O. de M.
Listen to this homily on audio.
When siblings come together there is always a moment of nostalgia. Many of these memories are filled with joy and laughter. Other times as we reminisce, there are the inevitable feelings of insecurities, jealousies, and perceived injustices. “You were always mom’s favorite!” “I got blamed for everything!” “(So and so) was always in trouble and got away with it!” Yes, inequality does exist in every family and community. Sometimes it is due to actual sin on the part of the parent or leader. Other times, it is the circumstances or perceived needs of the individual which prompt inequality.
We as human beings tend to look at the world from a sense of strict justice. Justice being defined as the virtue of giving another what is due to them. We naturally think that everything should be equal in order to be right. We may say,“If I do a full day’s work, I should get significantly more than one who works only 3 hours.”
A Just Wage?
However, Jesus’ words are so powerful and attractive precisely because they do not conform to societal norms. Our
Lord got people’s attention, made them think, and shook up the norms. Even today, 2000 years later, Jesus’ words both intrigue us and make us uncomfortable or frustrated. The attraction to Christ is because He is clearly coming from a different vantage point, one that is beyond us. His “thoughts are not our thoughts” nor are our ways His ways. When we come face to face with God…when all the pretenses and assumptions fall away…we are left exposed looking at the I AM; the cause of everything. This experience, which we all will have, leaves us with a choice: to engage the attractiveness of this otherworldly unconditional love or to stay in our little safe and ordered world.
Hopefully we will always choose the road less traveled. We will venture out into the truth, beauty, and goodness. No, we will never fully understand the mind of God. Yes, it will challenge us to the very soul of our being. But, this choice will enable us to become truly human…all that God created us to be.
The Wage of Grace
In today’s Gospel, the parable of the landowner, we are invited into the world of mercy. Jesus upsets the standards by introducing a God who would forego justice for his own reasons. Why give the workers, who worked only a few hours, the same as the others? We do not know why he does this, but we do know that it is not based on the amount of work which is done. The words of Christ throw our minds into a crisis, because this God does not fit within our neat orderly way of understanding the world. We are forced to think outside the box for answers. Maybe none of us deserve what we get? Possibly the wage or grace is not based on our merit at all? It is a free gift which we do not deserve.
We who have been baptized are always in “the Father’s house.” In this Sacrament, we receive the Holy Spirit, Sanctifying Grace, and adopted sonship. This is all a gift, which a loving father showers on His unworthy children. It is truly an unbelievable blessing to live in the Father’s house enjoying its grace
and light!
We Live in Our Father’s House
The message of the parable is that God may choose to give the same full gift to others according to His own designs. This person may have lived a scandalous life or done any number of horrible things. What occurs between them and God is not our concern. We must always keep our souls at rest in the Father’s house. Our presence in this Divine family is not because of anything we have or haven’t done. It is a free gift given to all those who choose to live in love.
May we have the courage to continue to follow a God whose ways are at times mysterious and beyond our natural inclinations. Jesus invites us to choose to engage the mystery. With God’s grace we learn to love in a way that seems unnatural. Continually taking this step we too can witness to a way of life which is beyond this world. The way of the Saints. The way of holiness.