Many folks have trouble with Sunday’s Gospel. Like the folks who worked all day in the vineyard, they wonder why the master pays the same wage to the late-coming workers as he paid to those who worked all day. It just doesn’t seem fair.
Well, let’s look at it in terms of our everyday life.
How much time do you spend in prayer each day? What if the Lord paid you in terms of that time?
How aware are you of God’s presence each and every moment of your day? What if the Lord paid you in terms of that awareness?
When it comes to giving life to others through thought, word, or deed, would you expect the same pay as, let’s say, Mother Theresa?
When you acknowledge your sinfulness, should the Lord dock you accordingly? Should he dock you when you don’t acknowledge personal sin?
Should someone who was a deathbed convert receive the fullness of salvation as compared with someone like yourself who has struggled to be a good Christian for years?
Thanks be to God that God does not act this way towards us, dispensing exactly what we are owed and no more in terms of eternal happiness. Y’see, if we insist on tit for tat, if we insist on strict justice, then as Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospel, the measure we use to measure others will be used on ourselves.
As it is, each and every person who ever lived receives the fullness of God’s mercy and compassion. There is no more or less there is only fullness. And thank God for that!
Much love and many prayers!
