25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Getting What We Deserve

In today's Gospel we hear the parable of the workers who all receive the same wage, even though they all work a different number of hours. Understandably the workers who worked for 12 hours complain when they receive the same compensation as those who worked for an hour. So what's Jesus trying to tell us by this parable? The same thing that God tells us in the first reading: That His thoughts and ways are different than our thoughts and ways. We are concerned with fairness--with getting what we deserve. What about God? He is concerned with love--which is not worrying about giving what one deserves but about giving what is good for the person: Being generous in mercy and forgiveness and salvation (which no one of us deserves).