Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 24, 2023 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Isa 55:6-9; Phil 1:20c-24, 27a; Matt 20:1-16a]For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. [Isaiah] "My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous? Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." [Matthew]
Parents hear it often: "It's not fair! You gave him/her more than me!" Or, "Why do you let them do such-and-such when you never let me do that when I was their age?" A later version age-wise, might be, "Why does he/she have all the such-and-such? I never seem to get a break from the Almighty!" A sacramental version has been heard that goes like this: "That person was a liar and cheater all their life and at the last moment, the priest came in with the Last Rites and that person made it into heaven! It's not fair to us good folks!" Why doesn't God play by OUR rules?
Comparing ourselves to others can lead in two dangerous ways. One way is resentment (envy) that someone else has something that we would like to have but don't." The other is pride: "I've got something YOU don't have!" Much of my counseling of students over the years has been helping an individual student to recognize the gifts they have instead of noticing, negatively, the gifts that others have. Learning to rejoice in the gifts of others is not an easy lesson. This was a problem in the early Christian community, as St. Paul and other New Testament authors noted, and it is a common problem today. Discernment of gifts and encouraging individuals (or even whole communities) to put those into service instead of envying others is an important service in itself. God's ways are not our ways and the Spirit distributes gifts according to the Spirit's standards, not ours. Our notions about who is first and who is last are not binding on God. The laborers in the vineyard in the parable today had to learn that lesson. So do we. AMEN