Matthew 20:1-16 Why be envious because I am generous?
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.’
THIS weekend’s Gospel reading is the all too familiar story of the workers in the vineyard and the ridiculously generous vineyard owner.
Workers go out at different times of the day and at the end of the day they all get the same amount of pay.
No matter how many times I read and re-read it at the back of my mind, deep in my heart, I can’t help thinking that it’s just not fair!
We think of justice in terms of what is fair, of what people deserve. So we would say that the people who worked longer deserved more.
But God doesn’t see it that way.
God thinks of justice in terms of people’s dignity, their right to a decent life.
The people who came late had the same right to a decent life as those who had worked all day, so they are all treated equally.
Nothing is taken from anyone, but all are treated in accord with their dignity, their right to a decent life.
Such is God’s justice.
That all sounds fine in theory but to me it still just does not seem fair!
Perhaps my reluctance to embrace God’s notion of justice is that there are times when I think others are not worthy of it or do not deserve it.
After all, surely justice is also a reward for doing good, doing one’s duty, resisting temptation, staying pure, staying the course, bearing the heat of the day in fidelity, going to Mass, doing what is right.
It is not easy to accept that God’s love does not discriminate and his forgiveness and love is given to those I deem to be less worthy of it, who don’t seem to have done their duty.
Whichever way I look at it – it does not seem to be fair !
If you are a bit like me then perhaps, in the end, we need to forgive God.
It’s hard to accept that God loves everyone equally – even our enemies, even those who hate us, even those who don’t work as hard as we do, even those who reject duty for selfishness, and even those who give in to all the temptations we resist.
Although deep down we know that God has been more than fair with us, God’s lavish generosity to others is something which we find hard to accept.
Like the workers in this weekend’s Parable of the Vineyard, who toiled the whole day and then saw those who had worked just one hour get the same wage as theirs, we often let God’s generosity to others warp both our joy and our eyesight.
Perhaps at this weekend’s Mass, instead of focusing on what we think everyone else is getting away with we should instead recognise and give thanks for our own capacity to love, forgive, resist temptations, work hard and the ability to do one’s duty.
In fact, maybe that is the very point of this weekend’s parable; that the vineyard workers were so obsessed by what others had been given that they failed to realise what they had received themselves.