Bound in Love

The grumbling by the workers at the end of the day is sometimes the main thing that we take away from this story. I want today to look at it from a different angle.

The kingdom of heaven is, among other things, the Church. It is within the Church that we work out our individual response to God’s call. We see that in the parable today. The landowner — who is God — initiates everything. That is true for us as well. God starts the conversation. God prompts us. It is God who gives us the thought to do something good today. The laborers — who are us — respond with freedom to the prompt of the landowner. We can conclude from the story that there was a place where the laborers would go so as to be found by the landowner. So it is with us today. We come to Mass, or we come to other things at the parish church, to be prompted by God. As the laborers did in the parable, we put ourselves in a position to engage in a conversation with God. And it was God himself who gave us the idea to come to church to put ourselves in that position. God initiates everything. We respond in freedom.

The landowner in the parable doesn’t limit himself to one potential encounter. And neither does God. The landowner goes at the beginning of the day, and he goes out again in the middle of the morning, and he goes out again at Noon, and he goes out again in the middle of the afternoon, and he goes out one last time near the end of the day.

When the landowner goes to the marketplace, he does not size up the available laborers. That’s not the way of Jesus, nor is it the way of the Church. We get sized up in life all the time: the size of our wallets, the size of our fame or reputation, or the size of our friend group. But the landowner just welcomes the chance to engage with the laborers. God does not size us up; he welcomes us into the embrace of his sacred heart.

When it comes time to settle up, the landowner gives each laborer the usual daily wage. Those who worked all day notice that they got paid the same as those who worked only briefly, and this is where we get the sense of unfairness and outrage in the parable. But let us consider it from the perspective of an all-knowing God, who never asks of us more than we can really do for him.

The laborers are the Church, and in the Church there are servants with different levels of energy, of time, and of talent. There are those who can give more, just as there are workers in the parable who can work all day. But the Lord does not judge the size of the gift. Each gift is precious in the sight of the Lord. It is we who get tempted by the devil to engage in comparisons that are odious to God.

God never asks us to do something that we cannot do. He does however always ask us to do what we can with love and purpose. The three things that we can give to the Church are basically money, time, and talent. The Lord does not ask us to give more money than we have to give. Perhaps we cannot give the parish $10,000. That is perfectly fine. Give $1,000, or give only $100, but give it with love and purpose. A tithing parish is not a parish that always hits a 10% income goal; a tithing parish is a parish in which everyone gives, even the widow with her two small coins, and every gift to support the parish is treasured by God.

The Lord does not ask us to give more time than we can. I see the Knights of Columbus here at the church almost every time I come. And that is a lovely thing. But if you don’t have the time, then you cannot give it. It would be wonderful if you could come to the church and participate in the Holy Mass every day. But many of us live 20 and 30 minutes away, and daily Mass may not be something we can actually fit in our workday. Well, that is fine. We can make sure we do go on Sundays, and that we go prepared with love and with purpose.

Not everybody has the same talents. The workers that were hired by the landowner in the parable surely included some who were strong and could work all day and some who were much weaker, and one hour is all they could really give. We trust in the landowner — who is God — to know what we really can do and what we really cannot do. God loves all our talents. Those talents that can contribute to the life of the parish he wants used to the level of our abilities. At Mass in this parish we hear some Latin even though that is not a language commonly in use today. The Church is not asking us to learn the Latin language. Perhaps some of us can, and that’s wonderful; but if we can’t, that’s okay too. But we can learn the short phrases that we use at Mass, and then we can recite them with love and with purpose.

The landowner — who is God — loves every gift given to him by every laborer if it is given with love and with purpose. God knows our hearts, so he knows when our gift is given out of duty or resentment or even a desire to obtain something in return. No gift given in those ways is truly a gift. Our God is the ultimate giver of gifts, and he prompts us to respond to his gift with our talents, our time, and our treasure. But he never asks us to give something we cannot give.

In a few minutes, we are going to receive the gift of the liturgy of the Eucharist, in which we will truly participate in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Through that sacrifice of Jesus, we received the gift of redemption and the opportunity to be his adopted sons and daughters. Let us all be prompted to respond with love and purpose.