Homily for Wednesday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time

For many people, today’s parable about the workers in the vineyard is a tough one to swallow.  There just doesn't seem to be any fairness to it and yet, this parable isn’t about fairness; it’s about generosity and mercy.

 

The vineyard owner is, of course, representative of God and we are fortunate that God is like that: generous and compassionate in His love for us.  After all, even if we work hard to follow God’s will in our lives, we know that we often fail and it is then that we really don’t want God to judge us with fairness, but with mercy instead.

 

God's kingdom is His free gift to us.  All we can do is love God and our neighbor and trust that He will give us all the graces that we will ever need toward our salvation. Each of us is loved deeply by God, but none of us is able to do anything to have either earned it or demanded it.+