Homily for 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 20, 2020

 The readings for this week can be found here.

                  “Are you envious because I am generous?” 

    Today’s readings speak of God’s mercy and generosity.  In the Gospel, we hear the parable of the landowner who needs workers for his vineyard.    He goes out several times throughout the day and hires more workers, promising they will be paid what is just for their work.  At days end, everyone is paid the same, regardless of how long they worked.  By our standards, this may not seem fair.  Some workers put in a full day’s work while others only worked an hour or so.  If we use an hourly rate, the workers who started later should have received much less that those who worked the entire day.  The landowner, however, felt that what was just was to be generous to those who, through no fault of their own, were not able to work the entire day.  At the time, the usual daily wage was a denarius, the amount needed for a person to support their family for a day.  Justice to landowner meant ensuring all his workers had what they needed for the day.  They didn’t earn this generosity through their labor or their efforts.  It was a free gift from the landowner to them.  God works in the same way.  God is generous to us not in the measure we do things, but simply out of love for us and as a gift to those who seek God. 

    In appreciation for God’s generosity and His many gifts, we need to imitate God in how we deal with others.  One way we can do that is to go out in search of those who hunger for God.  It can be as simple as just inviting others to come to Mass.  Such an invitation started my journey to deepen my faith.  I grew up a one step above a ChrEaster Catholic.  My family went to Mass Christmas, Easter, AND Palm Sunday.  As a result, my faith was very superficial.  By the time I reached high school, I only attended Mass if it was a school activity.  However, while my wife and I were dating in college, she began to gently invite me to come to Mass with her.  I politely declined quite a few times.  But eventually, I said yes and began to come every week.  God acts through us in seeking out laborers for His field.

    We can also imitate God by being generous with the gifts God has given us.  We can give of our time, talent, and treasure to benefit others in need.  However, in this time of COVID-19, sharing our gifts in this way can be challenging.  But there is something we can do that’s especially important in this age of social media, divisiveness, and outrage: we can be generous with our words.  When we speak to others, engage in online discussions, or just share our lives, we can be careful to ensure our words are supportive and gracious, not angry or self-righteous.  We need to remember that everyone is a child of God and deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.

    Fr. James Martin, in a Lenten reflection for America magazine, said it this way: Be Kind.  He provided three ways to be kind that I think are especially important in our highly connected age.  First:  Give people the benefit of the doubt.  The landowner in our Gospel didn’t assume the workers waiting to be hired throughout the day were lazy, and we certainly can’t assume to know other people’s motivations.  We don’t always know what burden others are carrying.  Give people the benefit of the doubt.  Second:  Honor the absent.  Don’t talk negatively about other people.  It’s very easy to start venting about someone in a disparaging way, especially if they’ve frustrated us.  In today’s Gospel, those who received payment last complained about those who had worked for only one hour, after they’d gone.  We need to be gracious to others even if they’re not around.  Honor the absent.  Finally:  Don’t be a jerk.  We all have bad days.  We need to be careful not to take our frustrations out on those around us.  Any cursory glance at the news will show there’s a lot of frustration in our communities today.  We need to make an extra effort to be generous to others when our emotions are running high.  Don’t be a jerk.

    God actively seeks us to draw us closer to Him.  Out of love for us, he generously provides what we need each day.  How will we respond?  Will we be like the workers that were envious, or we be like God and act generously toward others?