Why are you envious when I am kind? Todays Gospel from Mtt 20:1-16 talks of the Landowner who employs people at different hours but pays them all equally. This led the early ones to complain but the truth is that there was no injustice here since they were paid what they negotiated. I will like to share this story. There was this man who was very prayerful and had a neighbour who never prayed. But the irony was that when he prayed it was his nieghbour who was blessed doubled. This man will pray to God and say father I need a car but next day it is his neighbour who will be celebrating two new cars. He will ask for a house and it is his neighbour who will be having two having two houses. This man said I know my next prayer. He said I will pray to God to burst my one eye since when I pray it is my neighbour who recieves a double blessing , if I ask God to burst my one eye He will burst the two eyes of my neighbour. So he prayed for it. God said but for sometime now I have not blessed this my son instead I bless this other one let me for once grant his wish. God had record abondant blessings for this man so when he asked God to burst his one eye God said no I will give you a double too this time . So the man lost his two eyes. Today, the evangelist keeps depicting the Kingdom of God, after Jesus teachings, and which, during these Summer Sundays, is extolled in our Eucharistic Assemblies. In the background of todays Gospel lies the vineyard, prophetic image of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, and now, of the new people of God, born from the wounded side of the Lord in the Cross. The question: to belong to this people, as the effect of Gods personal call to each one of us: «It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you» (Jn 15:16), and, thanks to the volition of our Father in heaven, to extend this call to all men, motivated by His generous will of salvation. In this parable, the grumblings of the workers of the first hour are enhanced. They are the parallel image of the elder brother of the parable of the prodigal son. Those who see their task to win the Kingdom of God (the work in the vineyard) as a heavy affliction («we have endured the days burden and heat»: Mt 20:12) and not as a privilege which God favours them with, are not working with filial joy but with the ill temper manner of the servants. Faith, for them, is something that binds and enslaves, and, deep inside, they envy those that “live life”, inasmuch as they conceive the Christian conscience as a constraint rather than as the wings that provide our human life with a divine flight. They think it is better to remain spiritually idle, instead of living under the glow of Gods word. They feel entitled to their salvation and, accordingly, they are jealous. They do not pray for others like our friend in the introductory story all they ask is give me Lord. Their miserable and mean spirit notably contrasts with the Fathers generosity, who «who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth» (1Tim 2:4), and this is why He calls us to his vineyard, «The Lord is good to all, compassionate to every creature. (Ps145:9). Today we even have those who claim only members of their sects will make heaven. Like our Jehova withness fans claim only 144000 will make heaven of which they are the previlaged view. The question I will ask is since creation heaven must be full and they need not work again or since their church members are more than that number they should start screening. In my fathers house there are so many rooms. Work for your room. God is merciful yes but before all He is Just. In the Gospel he did not pay any man who did not work. REV. FRIAR CHARLES LWANGA MARIA PIO MATUTE OF THE CROSS AND THE PRECIOUSE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST FI .
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:46:39 +0000