We’re so grateful that Fr. Michael Schleupner, a favorite retreat leader and spiritual director here at the Center, shares his homilies and reflections with us. Let’s take a few quiet moments to read his thoughts about fairness and spirituality, based on this Scripture passages found in the book of Matthew.
For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the
laborers for the usual daily wage,[a] he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.[b] Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.[c] And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?[d] Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’[e] So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”[f] ~ Matt. 20:1-16
Two Lessons
One thing that probably all of us dislike is a lack of fairness. We want everyone to be treated fairly. We want fair pay, fair games, fair trials, and on it goes.
So, we may agree with the guys in the gospel story who have worked all day long. They are upset when the landowner pays a full-day’s pay to those who have worked just one hour or a few hours. In truth, the landowner is being fair because he gives the full-day workers exactly what they agreed upon and that was the going rate-of-pay. He simply chooses to be generous with those who have worked fewer hours.
Now, we have to say that Jesus is not giving a lesson here on good management or compensation practices – that’s definitely not the point! Instead, he is teaching us lessons first about God and then about ourselves.
Lesson 1: About God
We can summarize Jesus’ lesson about God with the word: “generous.” To those who have worked all day and are complaining about what he has paid the others, the landowner says: “Are you envious because I am generous?” Jesus is presenting the landowner as an image of God.
The idea is that God is absolutely generous in his love for us. In another passage of Scripture, Saint John says this so beautifully: “Love consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”
So, God first loves us, each of us, personally. God takes the initiative in loving. God’s love is purely and simply a gift. We don’t merit it or earn it. To us, this is counter cultural. Our experience is that we have to merit or earn practically everything. But this isn’t true when it comes to the love of God. One of our Catholic writers puts it this way.
“We don’t change [or try to grow] to earn God’s love; instead, we change because of God’s love.” The idea is that it is God’s love or grace within us that moves us to grow and change. So maybe we come to God or come back to God later in life. But amazingly, God treats us as the landowner treats the late workers.
It’s hard for me and maybe all of us to understand this. So, we just have to accept this as part of the mystery of God because God is ultimately mystery to us. We just have to remember that God is “generous” – that’s the key word. God gives his love as a gift, and we don’t earn it or merit it.
Lesson 2: About Us
The second lesson really flows from the first. It is also summed up in one word, the word: “envious.” The landowner says to the all-day workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
I and probably each of you, we human beings can be envious. Envy is the sin of being upset at someone else’s good fortune. Maybe a fellow employee gets a promotion; maybe a family member gets named in an inheritance; maybe someone gets publicly recognized for doing some charitable work – these are the kinds of things that can make us feel envious – resentful, begrudging, even hateful.
Notice in the gospel what leads to envy. The day-long workers compare themselves with the part-day workers and their pay. It’s the comparing that leads to the envy. So, Jesus wants us to stop comparing ourselves to others in this way. Instead, he wants us to focus on God’s generous love for us. He wants us to be aware of the gifts God has given us – like our school, our job, our family, our friends, our home, our health, our health care, and on it goes. Jesus doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to others who seem to have something we don’t have and then become envious. Instead, he wants us to look at ourselves and what we do have and be thankful to God for that. And that’s the key point. Being thankful is the opposite of being envious.
Conclusion
So, two words: “generous” and “envious.”
God is amazingly generous to each one of us. If we remember this and are thankful, we will not become envious.
~ Fr. Michael Schleupner
Would you like to receive Inbox Inspirations? Click here.