Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Children always exhibit the greatest sensitivity to fairness. God help the parent who gives one child a larger piece of cake than the others. The most minute and scientific instrumentation pales in the presence of a kindergarten child who is policing equality among his or her siblings. In today’s gospel Jesus tells the story of the master of the fields distributing the daily wage to those who have done various amounts of work. A fare wage was given to all but all have not worked the same to attain the same wage. The supervisor makes a point; no injustice was done since everyone received the fair wage. The parable points out the idea that mercy supersedes justice. If we all received what we deserve we would all be in a rather rough place. Balancing mercy and justice has always provided a challenge, but it seems in moving humanity forward to a higher level, mercy is an effective lever.