21 September 2014
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our Gospel calls attention to the sovereign generosity of God. The landowner in Jesus’ parable gives equal wages to the workers, regardless of when they began their labors. To the chagrin of those who commenced much earlier, the landowner asks strikingly, “Are you envious because I am generous?” How might we also need to surrender a similarly envious, possessive servant-mentality?
The radical self-gift of God represents a scandal of Christianity. God freely gives his love and grace to all those who will cooperate with his plan of redemption. We are not measured according to weights and balances and then given what we “deserve.” Indeed, we deserve nothing. Yet that does not keep God from relentlessly lavishing us with his goodness. Today, let us re-discover the glorious abundance that God offers.