God, out of His love, created us for a purpose. We are called throughout our life to discover what that is. As disciples, God gives us multiple gifts to understand the ways of the Lord. It is from this aspect that we practice our faith as true and faithful servants of the Blessed Trinity in thought, word and deed, as well as faith, hope and love.
Though this formula may seem easy enough, we still have a roadblock which we rely on to balance our human survival in the world versus God’s perspective in regards to the meaning of life. In our Gospel, readings and responsorial psalm we are given a loud and clear message identifying to us God’s approach to holiness versus our understanding as how we believe life should be conducted.
As Christians we, or our parents and godparents on our behalf, promised at our Baptism to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and all that God has created as Jesus loves us. It has the potential to work that way, but we seem to base our belief from our human perspective expecting God to think and do as we do.
In our first reading from Isaiah 55:8, we read: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.” Psalm 145:17 supports that when we read: “The Lord is just in all His ways and holy in all His works.” We receive a more concise definition of God’s justice versus how we define it for our purposes.
St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 20, Verses 15 and 16 read: “I am free to do as I please with My money am I not? Or are you envious because I am generous? Thus the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” As followers of Christ, God calls us to live according to the Gospel. This is the Gospel of Life, generosity, justice, forgiveness, mercy and of love. To the best of our ability we commit ourselves to live well-intentioned lives that reveal the generosity and mercy of God to others.
In other words, the parable is not about being paid a fair wage based upon the time worked. It goes by unmerited favor or extravagant generosity calculated exchange into ungrounded magnanimity or, in Christian terminology: Grace.
When we see how wondrous God’s ways are, when we see the bounty of God’s generosity, we also understand the limits of our humanity. We know we need God, inside us and around us.
Let us take this week to take an introspective look into our heart as to how we look at just situations versus God. Are we giving the edge to questions and concerns we may have difficulty in understanding because it gives us peace or are we trying hard to see how everyone is being helped with God’s heavenly senses. God has all the answers about life. It seems to me He can provide all we need for everything.
Reading 1: Isaiah 55: 6-9
Reading 2: Philippians 1: 20c-24, 27a
Gospel: Matthew 20: 1-16a
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