May we, in this Sunday's Eucharistic celebration, obtain the graces to eschew narrow-mindedness and selfishness, and insights to be sensitive to the needs of our neighbours.
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 55,6-9; Philippians 1, 20c-24a.27a; Matt 20,1-16: 25th Sunday of the Year, September 20, 2020)
In today's Gospel, we find a rather disconcerting teaching of Jesus, which can make the Lord seem unjust to us. In reality, he wants to open our hearts: He does not want us to remain in the perspective of a narrow distributive justice, but that we open ourselves to divine generosity, which changes our perspectives. It is the parable of a master who calls several workers to work in his vineyard and pays them at the end of the day.
To prepare for this teaching of the Gospel, the liturgy presents to us in the first reading, a short text of the prophet Isaiah, in which God says: My thoughts are not your thoughts, yours ways are not my ways. We have human thoughts, but God's thoughts are very different. We are therefore invited to welcome divine thoughts, to participate in God's goodness and joy. We must not remain on an earthly, narrow-minded level, but we must open our hearts. The Lord is rich in mercy, forgives copiously and full of generosity, and wishes to communicate this generosity to us.
The parable of the Gospel shows us a master who repeatedly hires workers for his vineyard. He goes out early in the morning and hires some workers, agreeing with them on the wage of one denarius for the work of the whole day.
Then he goes out around nine in the morning, sees others who are unemployed and hires them. He still goes out around noon and around three in the afternoon, and does the same. Finally he goes out around five and yet sees other unemployed people and says to them: Why are you here all day idle? They answered him: Because nobody took us by day. The master also sends these people to his vineyard, making them work for only one hour. At the end, he says to his manager: Call the workers, give them their wages, starting with the last ones up to the first. This detail shows Jesus’ intention: He wants to prepare a surprise, which manifests itself in the disconcerting way of payment. The workers hired at five in the afternoon each receive a denarius, that is to say, the salary that had been agreed with the workers of the first hour. Of course, the latter thought they will receive much more, but they too received a denarius. Then they murmured against the master: The latter worked only an hour and you treated them like us, who have endured the weight of the day and the heat. To us, too, the owner's behaviour seems very unfair. But the master explains to one of them: Friend, I am not doing you wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? The master gives to the workers of the first hour what has been agreed; this is an act of justice. But then he presents another perspective, that of generosity: I want to give the latter too as much like I gave to you. That is, the boss wants to be generous with the workers of the last hour. They have not earned the wages they have received, but they need it to live on. The owner knows of this need and generously gives something more; he says: Can't I do what I want with my things? We must distinguish the two things: on the one hand justice and, on the other, generosity towards those in need. Last hour workers are unemployed people who cannot earn anything; they need a salary, and the master generously gives what they need. We can note with satisfaction how this teaching of the gospel is being realised in the world today, in some societies/countries. In such societies laws are enacted that allow even those who do not work to receive money: for the unemployed there is an allowance, not earned with a job, but necessary for their lives. Family allowances are also given: between two workers doing the same job, the one who has no children receives the normal salary, while the one who has children receives more. Society has understood that it cannot rely solely on distributive justice. Certainly, it was not easy to arrive at these solutions, because most men think according to the criteria of distributive justice (for the same work done you must receive the same salary) and do not think about the needs of people, which are different.
Today, however, there is a whole social legislation that takes these needs into account. For example, if a person is sick and cannot work, he still receives the salary. This fact, from the point of view of distributive justice, is unfair, but from the point of view of good social organisation, it is just. Thus, we see that the teaching of the Gospel of this Sunday has penetrated the minds of the men of our time and has transformed social relationships, and this is a reason for great joy that it is happening somewhere in the world today. But the big and challenging question confronting us, the Christians and disciples of Jesus in our country is: When can we have such societal welfare and christian generosity in this our great country Nigeria, so richly blessed by God? It will be so and even better if we allow the teaching of this gospel to involve us personally: we must have an open mind, a generous heart. If we want to have God's thoughts, we don't have to be narrowly attached to distributive justice, but we must be sensitive to the needs of others. This means to give to our neighbour what is due him in the first place. Secondly, we have to eschew corruption which is the main cause of injustice in our nation. Those among us who are rich by dint of hard work and who have achieved their wealth by so much ingenuity, must now begin thinking of the poor, first with concrete offers, and secondly by helping them rise from their state of poverty and want. We were all impressed how a good number of rich citizens came to the aid of their poor neighbours during the hunger period occasioned by the Covid 19 lockdown. We encourage our people who have the means to imitate the generous land owner of the gospel reading of today not only to give the poor fish to eat today, but also teach them how to fish themselves for their future sustenance. It will not be easy but this is the main challenge God is putting before you and me today. If we succeed in living up to this challenge, it would mean that the Christian mentality has really gradually penetrated our society, our country Nigeria.
The second reading does not have a direct relationship with the Gospel. However, it shows us Paul's generosity. He is in prison, about to undergo a sentence. He reflects and affirms that for him dying would be a gain, because, thanks to death, he would reach a definitive and perfect union with Christ. On the other hand, he is faced with the concrete need of the Philippians and other men, he realises that his apostolic work is necessary. Living in the body means working fruitfully. Then he chooses to continue working for Philippians. He does not care about the reward or the salary, but wants to work generously in the service of the Lord. In this passage, the Apostle shows that he does not have a narrow mind, but that he has a very broad heart. And in line with the first reading and today's Gospel, he adopts divine thoughts, renouncing human thoughts, the human way of reasoning, and acts with great generosity. The Eucharist we celebrate makes us go in the same direction: it infuses our hearts with the generosity of Jesus, who gave his life for us sinners. To be united with him, we must, therefore, welcome this generosity of his and renounce too narrow-minded and selfish human mentality. +John I. Okoye
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