RBWords

     The Gospel of Matthew is one in which "the call and the response" is a constant theme.  Those who respond are expected to meet the challenges of the call.  The call is not something that the responder can negotiate.  We are not in a position to tell Jesus what he may and may not ask of us.  His offer is one that we can refuse, but we do not determine the terms of his call.  This is the meaning of the parable of the landowner and laborers.  At first reading, many of us will have a kind of visceral response about wages and hours worked.  Indeed, on the level of our American notions of labor-management relationships, the landowner might be subject to a lawsuit on fair employment practices.  However, this is first century Palestine, and not twenty-first century America!  We cannot read our notions into Jesus' preaching and hold him accountable!

     The first line of the parable really contains its whole meaning.  "The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard..."  Each call is different at each point of the day.  The expectations of the owner are clear.  He wants people working in the vineyard and offers the opportunity.  The expectations of the laborers who are hired earlier in the day are what causes the problem at the end.  They "compare" their call with the call that others have received.  

     I encounter this problem in retreat preaching when I hear a priest or sister speak bitterly about assignments going to someone whom they do not feel "earned" the opportunity.  The same problem exists in the non-church context as our experience will tell us.  In the parable, however, we encounter the mysterious workings of God's grace in each person.  The problem of envy is always lurking in the human heart.  We find ourselves comparing our lives with the lives of others and feeling that somehow God has shortchanged us.  We forget the grace of the call we have received in our envy of someone else's grace!  We become like children sensitive to any perceived difference in the way our parents treat us and our siblings!  The parable challenges us to once more be grateful for what God has offered to us.  Nor should this parable be used as some kind of justification for unjust labor practices!  The call and the response are at the center of Matthew's gospel and we who wish to be disciples have to evaluate our response accordingly.  We can be cooperators with God's grace in the vineyard or we can be loafers in the square or complainers about the wages.  I think the preferred response is clear!  AMEN