May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
Today the prophet Isaiah invites us to seek the Lord while he
may be found and call upon him while he is near. We are invited to seek the Lord who is
generous in forgiving and full of mercy.
From the prophet Isaiah, we hear that we are the ones who are called to
seek.
In the Gospel today the Lord Jesus tells us the parable of the
landowner who seeks laborers for his vineyard.
Here it is not the servants who are called to seek, but the master who
is seeking for them. The master never
gives up his search for laborers for his vineyard. He called them in the early hours of the morning
to go into the vineyard and promised them the usual daily wage. He called them in the middle of the morning,
and promised them a just wage. He called
them in the middle of the day, in the middle of the afternoon, and even in the
last hour of the working day. Each
laborer was given the same command, “Go into my vineyard,” and each laborer was
promised a just payment. And when the
day of work was ended, the laborers who were the last ones to be hired were the
first ones to be paid. Those who worked
in the vineyard for only an hour were paid the usual daily wage. The payment that they received was far
greater than the work that they had accomplished. Each laborer in turn received the usual daily
wage until all had been paid. Those who
had worked the full day were paid as had been agreed, but they resented the
generosity of the master in paying all the workers equally. Essentially, my brothers and sisters, those
who had agreed for the usual daily wage, who were paid the usual daily wage,
and labored the whole day in the vineyard of the landowner, missed the point.
The apostle Paul, however, did not miss the point. A devout son of the people of Israel, a
student of the law, Paul was a man who had sought the Lord while he may be
found. Formerly he had been a persecutor
of the followers of Jesus, but after encountering Jesus on the road and hearing
his call, Paul’s life was forever changed.
The last apostle to be called directly by the Lord Jesus tells us today
in the letter to the Philippians that “life is Christ.” We hear that the reward at the end of this
life, when the day of work is over, is to be with Christ. Paul understood
what the laborers in the vineyard did not.
The reward was not the payment.
The reward was the relationship with the master. From the early hours of the morning, they had
been privileged to serve in the vineyard of the master. He had called them unto himself and sent them
to do his work. They forgot the joy of a
life spent in the service of the Lord.
They even missed that at the end of the day, the master called one of
them, “My friend.” The apostle Paul
never forgot that joy. Paul never forgot
that Jesus had called him, as he called all the apostles, his friend. Through trials and tribulations, persecutions
and imprisonments, Paul never forgot that the life of greatest joy and the life
of greatest meaning is the life spent in the vineyard of the Lord.
We have come here today to seek the Lord where he has
promised to be found. In the scriptures
proclaimed, in the gathered community of the baptized, in the one though
unworthy set apart as his priest, and most especially in the Sacrament of his
Body and Blood, the Lord Jesus has promised to be found. We have come here today because at whatever
hour of our lives we are currently in, and that is known to God alone, we have
heard the call of the Lord and have gone into the vineyard. Let us labor in the vineyard of the Lord, in
whatever way he has called us and at whatever time he has called us.
As we celebrate the Eucharist today, let us be attentive to
the call of the Lord to labor in his vineyard.
Let us remember that Jesus Christ himself is the reward of our labors in
his name. And let us today be thankful,
for our Lord is near, our Lord is very near, to all who call upon him and he
has called us his friends. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
