Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The last section of the Book of Isaiah provides the first reading for Mass this weekend. Virtually none of the prophets of ancient Israel wrote when times were good, or at least when the prophets perceived the times to be good.
Certainly, the author of the section of the Book of Isaiah which supplies this weekend’s reading hardly regarded the times to be good.
An added dimension to the story of the unhappy plight then being endured by God’s people is that they found want and not relief when they returned from Babylon, where they and their ancestors had lived in exile for four generations.
At first they had rejoiced when their exile was over, convinced that God had provided for them and rescued them. But when they arrived back at the promised land and saw its terrible condition, they felt betrayed and abandoned.
It is easy to imagine their dismay and anger. For generations, constantly urged by other prophets, they had trusted that God would provide for them when all was said and done. Now they were desperate, God nowhere in sight.
This prophet had to restore their trust in God. He asked the people to maintain their trust in God and to call upon him, the source of true strength, regardless of fleeting problems of the moment.
For this weekend’s second reading, the Church offers a passage from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians.
The Apostle Paul, in this epistle’s soaring language, proclaims the divinity of Christ, the Savior, the Son of God. Paul explains the intimate, inseparable link between the Lord and true disciples.
Come what may on Earth, disciples will never die if they, with the help of God’s grace, remain constant in loving God and obediently following Christ.
St. Matthew’s Gospel provides a parable for the last reading. The agricultural setting of the story would have been well understood within the context of everyday life in Palestine at the time of Jesus. It was the pursuit of most people. Life was hard. Poverty was everywhere.
Gainful employment was at a premium. Men looking for work and income came to village centers each morning seeking work. People with projects came to these places and hired these men.
It was a buyer’s market. No legal requirements for any minimum wage or contracts restrained employers in their pursuit of profit. Still, at least for Jews, certain expectations of fairness prevailed. (A denarius was a typical day’s wage.)
Jesus used the term “vineyard” (Mt 20:1). It immediately recalled
Old Testament references to the promised land as God’s vineyard. So, the story from the beginning had a theological and moral quality. God owned and operated the vineyard. He set the rules. God hired the workers and therefore provided them with survival itself.
Three powerful lessons emerge. God is almighty. He is enormously generous, not stingy or hard-hearted. Finally, God’s ways are not necessarily our ways, a reality we often forget.
Reflection
The long, tiring months of the coronavirus pandemic several years ago showed what the ancient Jews, described in the first reading, felt in their hearts as they looked upon their plight. Will it ever end?
The temptation is to be disappointed by God or even to reject him.
Emphatically, in these readings, the Church insists that God is our only hope, salvation and solid rock of security.
Hold onto God. If we repent, even late in the day, God’s loving forgiveness will reward us lavishly. All perils will pass. A future awaits us. It is eternal.
We await God today in our weariness and fear, just as men waited to be hired in the parable heard in the passage from Matthew’s Gospel proclaimed at Mass this weekend. God is looking for us, eager to bring us into his vineyard and to pay us with the greatest of wages, peace now and forever. But we must go to the public square to offer our hearts truly and totally to God. †