We just heard great teaching of Jesus. The principle lesson of this parable is that God is generous, that the kingdom of heaven is not run like the kingdom of earth, that God’s ways are not people’s way.
Yes, God is generous. The question is: are we generous?
Many times we hear statements: “I grew up with the Church, I went to a Catholic school, I go to Church every Sunday, I pray every day, I go systematically to the sacrament of Reconciliation to reconcile myself with God, I go to communion all the time. So I work in ‘God’s field’ all my life, therefore I have to get better rewards than others.
And who are the others? Some of them are the people who converted and joined the faith later; some of them join our faith on their death bed. And maybe they did not work as hard in God’s field, as hard as we did. Maybe they worked as hard as or even harder than we did, but for short period of time.
Are we generous to recognize their work, without pointing that we did more, or the same — but for a longer period of time? Didn’t we agree to our reward?
If we look closer into our behavior, we really think and behave as that first group from Jesus’ parable.
Yes, as Christians, we who are working in God’s field by spreading the good news throughout our families, our neighborhoods, we can expect a reward, and we should expect a reward. But we cannot expect more than we agreed to.
Through baptism, first communion, confirmation, didn’t we agree to do what God requires from us for our reward. So, we really cannot expect more than we deserve, more than we agreed to. And at the same time we cannot put anybody down.
We have to accept God’s generosity. And that generosity is not only toward those who joined us later. The love of God and His generosity is toward all of us. Without His mercy none of us probably could reach the final reward, which is Heaven.
Why?
Because none of us is perfect. Therefore, let’s work toward perfection in our own lives as hard as we can, so at the end we will receive the the agreed to reward. Amen.