The parable in the Gospel reading for this Sunday may be perceived as hopeful by some and shocking by others. We see workers who start at different times of the day receive the exact same wage at the end of the day, even those who only worked one hour. Is this unjust, one might contend? Why are the workers who worked just a little getting paid as much as the ones who labored the entire day?
To understand the parable, we have to start by noting that the story is not meant to instruct us on business practices. The parable is spiritual in meaning. God will welcome into Heaven all those who repent, even those who do so at the very end of their lives.
But, some Christians might object, is that really fair? What about those who followed all the rules, stayed away from sin, did all the right things, even when they were hard, and are now looking forward to their well-earned reward at the end of their lives? How must they feel when a repentant sinner gets a last minute pass to go to Heaven - a sinner who never obeyed, who had all the fun, who never had to do the hard things.
To answer the objection, we should start by looking at the kind life such Christians have led. By their own account, their Christian life was cold and joyless. They followed the rules, they obeyed, but there is no evidence of true love for Christ. Such a Christian life is about checking off boxes, but not about genuine love. What is missing is a relationship of love with Christ.
When our Christian life is grounded in a relationship of love, obedience to God's commands is not a burden, but a source of joy. God's divine law leads us toward that which gives us life and leads us away from that which would destroy us. Furthermore, if we have a relationship of love with Christ, the vicissitudes of live, even the worst suffering, can become meaningful and even joyful, as long as we embrace our Cross out of love for Christ.
With regard to the question of obedience, a sinful life is not a fun life. From the outside, it might look like it, but sinful desires enslave the soul and mire the person in self-destructive darkness. Saying no to sinful desires may seem like we are giving up a lot of fun at first, but in reality, we are escaping pain, misery, and slavery. Thus, instead of secretly envying someone who is in a state of habitual sin, Christians should pity such individuals and should seek to share the joy of Christ with them.
By analogy, imagine a situation where a woman spends her whole life playing and teaching classical music and loves to share her passion for this art form with others. But her own husband hates such music and doesn't want to listen to any of it. However, when he is on his death bed, as he is dying, he asks her to play some of her music for him on the piano.
How would the wife in this story respond? Would she say: "Oh no! I put in so many years suffering through classical music. You lived your whole life free of this music, and now you want to hear it? I don't think so. You can die without it!" Or would she rather say: "I am so glad that in the last minutes of your life, I can finally share with you this beautiful music. I have longed for this day for so many years!" We can be sure that she would respond in the second way. How much more should we, Christians, rejoice when someone finds Christ in the final moments of their life! We should be filled with joy that they too can finally experience the joy of Christ, after being in darkness their whole lives.
As the First Reading indicates, we are given a finite amount of time to accept Christ. Throughout our whole lives, we experience the limited nature of time upon this earth. When we study, we only have so much time in a class to build up a good grade. As we work, we only have so much time to save for retirement. As we age, we only have a limited amount of time to make healthy choices, before debilitating illnesses can set in. Nor do we live forever upon this earth. We will all die one day. We have until the moment of our death to embrace the love of Christ.
Let us not waste any time before we choose Christ and make him the organizing principle of our lives. In the Second Reading, the Apostle Paul shows that his life has meaning only because of Christ. On the one hand, he would like to move beyond this earthly life so that he can be with Christ for all eternity. But on the other hand, he knows that he can do much good while he is still alive upon the earth, so he wants to keep living to keep serving Christ here, as long as it is God's will.
We should have the same attitude. We should not fear death, since death is necessary for our full union with Christ. However, we should not seek death, nor should we be neglectful of our well-being, thereby hastening death. We should be good stewards of the life that is given to us so that we can continue to serve God in this life as long as he wills us to do so. But we should not be attached to this life for its own sake. We should make Christ the center of our lives each day, every moment of every day. That is the key to a joyful life.
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The readings for Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A are:
Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a
Matthew 20:1-16a
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Image Credit: Christus Pantocrator, from Wikimedia Commons.
