Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A

It doesn’t take a very long acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus to come to recognize the absolute truth of Isaiah’s statement in today’s first reading that “God’s ways are not our ways.” Think of how frequently Jesus’ words or actions are misunderstood by the apostles, by Peter, for example, who got it wrong again regarding the frequency of offering forgiveness. Or think of Jesus’ controversy with the rabbis, and even violence levied against him at times by some who wanted to find a way to silence him. The God whom Jesus was continually talking about just did not seem to be the same God whom the scribes and the pharisees and even the apostles knew – and, not surprisingly, they found it difficult to accept his ideas.

Even two thousand years of reflection on the Gospel has not removed altogether the shock value for us of some of the statements of Jesus. How many of us, for example, don’t feel empathetic towards the grape pickers of today’s Gospel who had worked all day from early morning and found themselves compensated with the same wage given to those who had worked for just one hour! There is something about that which strikes many of us as not quite right, and yet the vineyard owner is correct in stating that no injustice had been done, for the day’s salary had been agreed upon with each of them from the start. If the full-day workers had been paid
first, they would have gone away satisfied. It’s only when they see how the others are treated that they are filled with indignation. “Are you jealous because I am generous?” – that’s the question at the heart of the matter. And in many ways, it is still a relevant question.

It is partly our American system of values that sets us up for disappointment when we’re met with the teachings of Jesus. Our American gospel says, “Equal pay for equal work.” Labor unions would have a hard time with the vineyard owner’s generosity also. But when the vineyard
owner is God then the entire system of work and wages and merit crumbles. Because with God, everything is grace, that is, everything is a gift. All that we are and have is the result of God’s generosity to us, not anything we have worked for or deserve.

As disciples of Jesus, we are literally his students. We present-day disciples need to sit continually at his feet. We need to hear the Good News that will set us free. We need to stay long enough to allow the shock of his teaching to become less and less stunning. We need to find the way to accommodate our lives to the Gospel rather than try to fit Gospel truth and Gospel values into our well-established practices.

Our Catholic belief about the Holy Eucharist is one of those shocking teachings we have received from the Lord. “This bread is my body,” he says, “this wine is my blood.” And that is what we believe. “Turn the other cheek,” Jesus says, but it seems so often to go against human nature! “Forgive without counting”; “love your enemies”; “do good to those who persecute you.”

Indeed, God’s ways are not our ways. And yet the goal is that they more and more become our ways so that we may more and more become authentic disciples.