Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time   

Matthew 20:1-16a

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

An eccentric landowner with a strange sense of justice!

Here we have the classic passage in which labourers are hired at different times of the day, some in the morning, some during the day, and some in the evening, but all are given the same salary. This seems to be unjust, and the labourers who work longer start to complain. In order to comprehend this text, we must place it in its proper context in the Gospel of Matthew. The previous chapter in the Gospel tells of the rich young man called to follow Jesus, and of Jesus telling his disciples what they would receive for having given up everything to follow him. Chapter 19 finishes with the saying "Many who now are first will be last, and many who are now last will be first". Then Jesus recounts this  parable in which the last do indeed come first, and the first do come last, in thought-provoking circumstances!

            The story is about a landowner who goes out at dawn to hire labourers for his vineyard and agrees to pay them the regular daily wage, a single silver coin. Then he goes out at nine o'clock, hires some more labourers and promises to pay them a "fair wage". A fair wage in this case, one would think, should be less than the amount due to the ones who had begun work some hours earlier. The owner does the same thing at twelve o'clock and at three o'clock, promising each time a payment that is "fair". Late in the day, at five o'clock, he goes out again and says to the men standing around, "Why are you standing around here doing nothing?" The Greek word for "doing nothing" literally means "without work". They reply, "Because no-one hired us". This time the landowner simply says, "Go and work in my vineyard," and doesn't comment on the wage that he will pay. We will have to wait until the end of the day before we discover how much he will give to these who work for just one hour, and to those who were promised an unspecified "fair" wage.

            In the evening, when it is time to pay the wages, the owner calls the ones who were hired last to receive their wages first. He does this intentionally so that the ones who worked all day will see the wages given to the ones who worked less - a very provocative strategy hardly designed to boost labour morale! Those who had worked all day under the heat of the sun expect to receive more, so they grumble that the ones who worked for just one hour were given the same silver coin! The problem here, surely, is that the landowner had promised to pay a "just" wage to the ones who had been hired later in the day. Doesn't justice dictate that these late-comers be paid less?

A confrontation between two senses of justice

This appeal to our natural sense of justice makes us indignant at the blatant lack of fairness, in our eyes, being displayed by the landowner. But it is the intention of the parable to challenge our defective notion of justice and to confront it with a notion of justice that is completely other. This parable turns the normal human perspective on things on its head. To be called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be called to live by a different logic, a paradoxical logic in which the first shall be last and the last first.

            In normal circumstances, when we think of the wage that is due to someone, we tend to think of the utility of the person's work, of their productivity, of their output. But what happens if we try to apply this logic consistently? According to this logic, the one who is efficient and productive has the right to be recompensed, and the one who is not productive has questionable value in the system. If this notion of "justice" is taken to its logical conclusion, then we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position. What do we do with the elderly, with someone who is no longer useful? What do we do with someone who is seriously ill, with someone who cannot work, or fulfil a productive role in society? Let us not pretend that the mentality of looking at the elderly, or the ill, or the unproductive with a disparaging eye is a mentality that is alien to us! We do tests on the foetus and discard those who cannot fulfil the role that we wish them to play in our lives. The logic of giving to a person that which is due to them in return for what they give to society takes us into a cynical, terrifying world. Is there anyone among us who could survive on the basis of the cold logic of being recompensed precisely according to that which we have merited? Is there anyone who could place themselves before the world, before God, and say "You must give me exactly what I have earned", without having to hope for mercy, patience, benevolence, magnanimity?

            If the value of our lives, if our inter-relationships with others, if our very existence is measured on the basis of that which is owed to us, then what would any of us receive? Do we truly want our account with God to be settled fairly and completely? It is not just the sick, the elderly, the discarded in society who need the other logic displayed by the eccentric landowner - all of us need that logic! All of us desperately need the late-comer not to be discarded; we need the last one to be gathered in and accepted - because there is a last one in all of us.

Are we really envious of those who do not work in the vineyard?

If we look at the parable from another perspective, we can see a bad attitude on the part of the first workers who complain that they have worked all day under the sun. In the face of the harsh reality of unemployment endemic in today's world, what does it really mean to work and not to work? It is a much harder situation not to have work! To have been hired at dawn by the landowner meant that this problem has been solved for the early labourers, the problem of earning bread for their family, to have found someone who gave them something to do. One of the hardest things in life to cope with is the feeling of being useless. One of the greatest existential sufferings is to have no-one that will take us into their vineyard, to have no-one that asks anything of us. Who, then, is the unfortunate one? The one who has worked much, or the one who hasn't found work for the entire day? The question posed by the owner to the late-comers was, "Why are you here without work?" And the reply was "Because no-one would hire us". Man simply cannot bear having nothing to do; he needs to have something good and important to accomplish; his deepest longing is to be hired in the vineyard of the good landowner.

            How many times are people converted to the Good News and ask themselves "What have I done up to now? Look at how I have wasted my existence up to now!" To work in the vineyard of the Lord is a gift, and not to work there is a form of suffering. In the modern world it is a common phenomenon to find people going through long phases of idleness and emptiness, of prolonged spiritual adolescences; to find adults of thirty-five years of age who are still at university, and who still haven't managed to extract something serious from life. The fortunate ones are the ones who were hired early, who have already managed to find the path of their existence, who have been employed in the good vineyard and who haven't been standing around wasting their existence.

The joy of working in the vineyard is itself the recompense of God          

And here is the other logic par excellence. "Are you are jealous of me because I am good?" challenges the owner. God is just in his way, not according to our sense of justice. According to the justice of God, it is right to be good and generous to everyone, even to the one who has worked little. For every father, for every parent who loves their child, justice is the caring for, and salvation of, and the employment of, and finding the way for that child so that he might be happy. That is the justice of God. What is more important? To receive more because I did more than others? Or to have found my reward by working in the vineyard, and to be happy to have found my reward, and to have the joy of being in the good vineyard and to be today in possession of the happiness of the recompense of God?

Not a parable about social justice but about the joy of fruitful relationship with God

This is not a parable about social issues! It is about existential issues, about questions of faith. It is a parable that prompts us to reflect on our relationship with God. Let us hope that many of our brothers and sisters, even at the last minute, discover the joy of working for the Father, and receive the recompense of God. I think that all of us are looking forward to seeing many people in paradise, a multitude of people receiving that heavenly recompense at the end of our working day. Whether we work much, or whether we work little, let us hope that we all go to paradise. Let us hope to find all of our friends there, even those who seem to us to be wasting their lives. Let us hope that at the last minute they convert and enter into the joy of the recompense of God.