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25th
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
September
24, 2017
St. Mary
Parish, Pylesville 4:00 pm
St. Mark,
Fallston 9:00 and 11:00 am
A Lesson
in Generosity and Envy
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Two Lessons
One thing we all probably dislike is a lack of
fairness.
At least in theory, we want everyone to be
treated fairly. We want fair fair pay,
fair games, fair trials, and on it goes.
So, we may agree with the guys in the Gospel
story who have worked all day long. They
are upset when the landowner pays those who have worked just one hour or a few
hours a full day’s pay.
In truth, however, the landowner is
being fair because he pays the full-day workers exactly what they had agreed
upon, which was the going rate of pay for the day. He simply chooses, as his prerogative, to be
generous with those who have worked fewer hours.
Now, we have to say that Jesus is not giving a
lesson here on good management or compensation practices. Instead, he is teaching us something first
about God and then about ourselves.
Lesson 1: About
God
We can summarize Jesus’ lesson about God in
the one word: “generous.”
To those who have worked all day long and now
are complaining about what he has paid the others, the landowner says simply: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
Jesus is presenting the landowner as an image
of God and of himself.
The idea is that God is absolutely generous in
his love for us. In another passage of
Scripture, St. John says this beautifully: “In
this is love: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”
So, it all begins with the fact that God first
loves each of us and loves us personally. God’s love is, pure and
simple, a gift.
God takes the initiative and gives his love to
each of us. We don’t merit it or earn it.
And yes, to our ears, this is counter-cultural
for our experience tells us that we have to merit or earn everything we have or
acquire.
That may be true in many cases, my friends, but
it simply isn’t true when it comes to the love of God.
One of our Catholic writers puts it this way. “We don’t change to earn God’s love; on the
contrary, we change because of God’s love.”
So, it is God’s love within us – a pure unearned gift – that stirs us
to grow and change.
And as if that isn’t enough, God is also so
generous in his love that he treats us all in the same way – like those in
today’s parable. Perhaps that is why we come to God, or in my case come back to
God, later in life.
… and yet, late though it may be, God treats
us as the landowner treats the late workers. God treats us all equally no
matter when we started to follow Jesus.
It may be difficult to wrap our heads around this,
but we have to remember that God is “generous”
– that’s the key word, “generous.” God gives his love as a gift and we don’t
earn or merit it. Period!
Lesson 2: About Us
The other lesson to be learned here really flows
from the first.
It is too is summed up in one word and that word is “envious.” The landowner
says to the all-day workers: “Are you
envious because I am generous?”
Each of us, myself at the top of the list, can be
envious. Envy is the sin of being upset
at someone else’s good fortune. Yes, “Been
there done that!”
Perhaps a fellow employee gets a promotion and I
don’t. a family member gets named
in an inheritance and I’m passed over; perhaps a peer gets publicly recognized
for some charitable work and I don’t – these are the kinds of things that can
make us feel envious – resentful, begrudging, even hateful.
Notice in the Gospel what creates the feelings of envy. The day-long workers compare themselves with the part time workers and what they are
paid.
It’s the comparing
that creates the occasion envy to arise. So Jesus would have us stop comparing
ourselves to others in this way.
Instead, he wants us to focus on God’s generous love for us all. He wants us to be aware of the gifts God has
given us, gifts like our school, our job, our family, our friends, our home and
so on.
Instead of comparing ourselves to others who seem to
have something we don’t have and becoming envious, Jesus wants us to look at
ourselves and God’s generous love for us and be thankful.
And that’s the key point he’s making. Being thankful is quite the opposite of being
envious.
Conclusion
So, just two words to take with us today: “generous” and “envious.”
God is amazingly generous to each one of us. If we remember this and are thankful, if we
come from “generous,” we will not become envious.
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