Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

“Are you envious because I am generous?”

Fr. Jaume GONZÁLEZ i Padrós(Barcelona, Spain)

Today, the evangelist Matthew continues to describe the Kingdom of God according to Jesus’ teaching, as proclaimed during these summer Sundays in our Eucharistic assemblies.

At the heart of today’s story is the vineyard, a 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 on the cross. The matter at hand: belonging to this people, which is granted by a personal call made to each one: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you” (Jn 15:16) —and by the will of the Father in heaven, who desires to extend this call to everyone, in accordance with His generous will for the salvation of all people.

What stands out in this parable is the protest of the early-hour workers. They parallel the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. They experience their work for the Kingdom of God (the work in the vineyard) as a heavy burden (“we bore the day’s burden and the heat” Mt 20:12) and not as a privilege bestowed by God; they don’t work out of joyful sonship, but with the grumpiness of servants.

For them, faith is something that binds and enslaves, and they quietly envy those who “live life” to the fullest, for they see Christian conscience as a restraint, not as wings that give divine flight to human life. They believe it’s better to remain spiritually idle than to live in the light of God’s word. They feel that salvation is their due and are jealous of it. Their petty spirit contrasts sharply with the generosity of the Father, “who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), and thus He calls to His vineyard: “The Lord is good to all, compassionate toward all your works” (Ps 145:9).

Thoughts on Today’s Gospel

• “Let us run, let us press on; we are on the way. The blissful security of things past should not make us less diligent for those which we have yet to attain” (St. Augustine)
• “Dialogue is our method, not as a shrewd strategy but out of fidelity to the One who never wearies of visiting the marketplace, even at the eleventh hour, to propose his offer of love” (Francis)
• “Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their selfish use” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n 2445)