25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Deacon Bill Crane

IS 55:6-9

PHIL 1:20-24, 27

MT 20:1-16

Maximilian Maria Kolbe, the heroic priest and saint murdered by the Nazi’s in Auschwitz on Aug. 14, 1941, was a prolific publisher. His Franciscan monastery of 900 monks, before being shut down by Hitler, published a daily newspaper with the circulation of one million.  

Among St. Maximilian’s many gifts was included the ability to put complex theology crisply and even humorously. In 1923 he used one such phrase in speaking of man’s knowledge of God: “True we can not probe the depths of His essence and His perfection, for God is infinite and our mind has limits, just like our head, which fits into a cap.” (1) 

Isaiah’s words in the first reading: “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts” remind me of St. Kolbe. It is good for us to remember that we are the finite creatures and God is the infinite Creator when we approach His words in Sacred Scripture including the parables of Jesus. 

Jesus teaches on more than one level through the use of parables. He was teaching those who heard him but also, being True God as well as True Man, he knew his parables were also meant for us on this September day in 2008. 

The first thing to note about today’s Gospel is the line that immediately precedes it i.e. MT 19:30 where Jesus says: “But many that are first will be last, and the last first.” By saying that immediately before the parable of the laborers, Jesus is, as Cornelius a Lapide says: stating “a pre-parable.” (2)  In other words Jesus is “setting up” what he is going to tell his listeners. And he will state it again at the end of the parable in MT 20:16.  

This might be the benchmark for the system the U.S. Army uses for instructing trainees: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them.”-- It also may be a reflection of the Trinity i.e. teaching us three times to make sure we “get it.” 

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard has elements that “jump out” if you will. The “laborers called first” we can see as the Jewish people who were called through the covenant with Abraham and by Jacob, Moses and the prophets. They were offered eternal life but erroneously put their trust in the works of the Law in order to falsely “claim the Kingdom of God for themselves and reject Christ and faith in Christ.” (2)  

The “last called” are those starting with the Apostles and continuing with the Gentiles who humbly submitted to Christ and placed their trust in Him. The “vineyard” is the kingdom of Heaven including that part of the Kingdom on earth i.e. the Church Militant founded by Jesus and the Church triumphant in Heaven with Jesus.

A common phrase used today in business and by “Talking Heads” in the media is: “At the end of the day….” I first heard that expression used more than a decade ago in discussions with a Seattle based software company. Current use means “When all is said and done in this deal; with this campaign; this war - whatever.”  But what Jesus meant is the Final Judgment.  

Jesus is saying that those who accept him and his teachings and obey his commandments will receive “the pay” offered to all i.e. eternal life with him in Heaven. Those who reject Jesus, his teachings and commandments will not spend eternity in Heaven. The same “pay” of eternal life in the heavenly kingdom is offered to all – those “workers called early” who rejected Christ and those “workers called later” who accept Him. One is reminded of the line from St. Augustine’s Confession: “Late have I loved Thee, Beauty so ancient and so new.” 

We note that St. Luke, in Chapter 13 verses 29 and 30, records Jesus saying: “And men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Navarre)

The Latin Vulgate translated this line: “For many are called but few are chosen.” (cf. MT 22:14) 

We know that Jesus has come to call and cure us sinners. He said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” MT 9:12 He was even blunter in addressing the self-righteous in MT 21:31 he said: “The publicans and harlots will enter into the kingdom of God before you.” Of course Jesus was referring to those sinners who repent, do penance and then follow his commandments. He did not mean those who stubbornly remain in their sin. 

We sinners are called to make that change of direction away from sin to loving Jesus so much that we abhor sin and desire to do God’s will and to spend our eternity in Heaven with the Trinity. Jesus said: “…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  LK 15:7   

And what will it be like to be united with God? St. Maximilian Kolbe described it this way: “We will know God immediately. This we cannot comprehend and, in general, have no conception of it, but it is an authentic reality. We will see Christ in His glorified body, Our Blessed Mother, the saints. We will know God in our desire to perfectly participate in divine life. There it will be reaction to every action, so to speak. Creatures have come from God’s hand and will return to Him, and eternity will be such as creatures have respectively merited here on earth.” (1) 

St. Paul instructs us in the second reading today: “Only conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.” And St. Paul pulls no punches in expressing his own faith when he says: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain….I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better.”  My fellow Catholic Christians that should be our faith because at the end of “our day” on earth that is the “pay” to which we are lately called by Jesus! 

1)       Maria was his Middle Name, Jerzy M. Domanski, Regis N. Barwig, trans., 2^nd ed., Phila., 1979, Benziger Sisters.

2)       The Great Commentary, Cornelius a LaPide, Vol. II, p.276, Fitzwilliam, NH, 2008, Loreto Publications.