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Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 55:6–9; Philippians 1:20b–24, 27; Matthew 20:1–16
I once shared this Gospel with lay leaders in Lolotoe, East Timor.
Most of them were subsistence farmers. Life was not easy for them. They had known war, occupation, poverty, and the destruction caused by pro-Indonesian militia in 1999.
We read the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
Then I asked them:
“What do you think about the landowner?”
One by one, they answered:
“He was unjust. He should have paid according to the hours of work.”
That answer is easy to understand.
It is how the world works.
The longer you work, the more you should receive.
But Jesus is not describing an ordinary business.
He is revealing something about the kingdom of God.
In the parable, some workers begin early in the morning. Others are hired later. Some come at noon. Some come in the afternoon. Some are hired only at the last hour.
And at the end of the day, all receive the same wage.
Those who worked all day complain:
“You have made them equal to us, who bore the burden of the day and the heat.”
That sentence reveals the wound.
They are not angry because they received too little.
They received exactly what was promised.
They are angry because the others received the same.
They cannot rejoice that the late workers also have enough to bring home.
But let us look at those late workers.
They had stood there all day.
No one had hired them.
Perhaps they were worried about their families.
Perhaps they wondered how they would return home with empty hands.
Perhaps they felt useless, ashamed, and forgotten.
For them, being hired at the last hour was not an insult to justice.
It was mercy.
The landowner saved them from going home with nothing.
This is where the parable touches our own hearts.
We often think in terms of comparison.
Why did he receive that?
Why was she blessed?
Why did they get another chance?
Why did I work so hard, while others came late and still received mercy?
But God says through Isaiah:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”
God’s kingdom is not built on envy.
It is built on grace.
Grace is not a salary.
Grace is not a reward we can calculate.
Grace is God’s free and undeserved gift.
Above all, it is the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Before God, all of us are late workers.
Some may have served faithfully for many years.
Some may have returned after a long absence.
Some may come only at the last hour.
But no one earns salvation as a wage.
It is given.
Christ died and rose for all.
That is why the denarius in the parable can point to the one gift greater than all others: to be welcomed into God’s life.
The problem is not that God is unjust.
The problem is that we are often envious.
The landowner asks:
“Are you envious because I am generous?”
That question is painful.
Envy makes another person’s blessing feel like my loss.
Envy makes mercy look unfair.
Envy makes me forget that I, too, live only because God has been generous.
Saint Paul says in the second reading:
“Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Paul no longer lives by comparison.
His life belongs to Christ.
That is the freedom of a person who knows grace.
Today, this parable speaks to anyone who feels left behind.
Anyone who feels useless.
Anyone who thinks it is too late.
Anyone who has stood too long in the marketplace of life, waiting for someone to call.
Do not leave before the day ends.
The Lord still comes.
He still calls.
He still gives more than we deserve.
And if we have already been working in the vineyard for many years, then let us ask for a different heart.
A heart that does not complain when others receive mercy.
A heart that can rejoice when the last are also welcomed.
Because in the kingdom of God, the wage is not what we earn.
The wage is grace.
And grace is enough for all.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
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