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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 21 September 2014


Van Gogh  - Red Vinyard

Van Gogh - Red Vinyard

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I’ve often puzzled over Matthew's parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20.1-16). Taken as a straight orward story it seems odd. However much the landowner might seem just and generous there is no economic sense in the way the wages are distributed to the various workers. Those who have borne the heat of the day and the major burden of work are being treated in equitably, or so their trade union might think! Even as a parable of the Kingdom it might seem an odd story. I could see myself being very resentful towards those who haven’t toiled away as much as myself. But then I started to turn the story around. lLooking at it from another angle, it isn’t about wages at all, it’s all about reward and gift, it’s also about another kind of fairness and justice! How?

We know that Jesus is talking about himself as the Landowner and the Kingdom as the Vineyard and the labourers are all of us called to be his disciples. Maybe Paul can help us here. He often talks about the cost of discipleship. For him, working for the Lord is about fruitful service, working for others in an honest, just, and generously loving way! Do we seek any wages or powerful positions for being Christ’s disciples? I hope not, except, as Paul again says, the hope that in death we will eventually be with Him always. But that’s not quite what this parable is about.

The breakthrough came for me, when as sometimes has to happen, I realised that I cannot judge myself by another person's standards or achievements, but rather look to my own relationship with the Lord. It is also the humbling realization that we are definitely not perfect and so in need of that merciful and generous love God gives so freely.

There we have it. This story is about grace, mercy and love given abundantly without any conditions on service or seniority. In the parable, all the people called to work in the vineyard are treated fairly. The offer to each of them is the same, the gift given is also the same.

So it is with us, we do not become disciples of Jesus to earn money or seek power - we do it because we have been called by the Lord and accept his gift of love.

 Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.

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