Gospel: Matthew
20:1-16
Jesus
told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who
went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them
for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine
o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them,
‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they
went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did
likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and
said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no
one has hired us. He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was
evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and
give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When
those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily
wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but
each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against
the landowner, saying, ‘These
last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore
the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘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.”
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Reflection:
How does the mind of God thinks? It
definitely thinks not like our minds, it definitely decides not based on how we
decide. There are times that God’s decisions are not according how we would
like it to be. Nevertheless, we simply have to follow and obey no matter how
much we disagree with God.
In the gospel, the workers who worked much
earlier were complaining to the landowner (God) because they have the same wage
as with those who worked late in the afternoon. Why did they complain to the
landowner?
They complained because they thought that
there seem to be an injustice on how the landowner paid them. But there was no
injustice because everyone of them agreed to receive the usual daily wage. Therefore
there was no injustice, it so happen that God was generous to everyone of them.
There may be events in our lives that we may
be tempted to question the wisdom of God
and His decisions. But who are we to question the wisdom of God? Who are we to
complain before God?
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