If you understand the tricky business of organ transplant, then you’d begin to understand the parable in today’s Gospel. Harvest is not only a time-consuming affair but it is also a timely one. When the harvest is ripe, one has to gather quickly. In a sense, both the workers and the vineyard owner are desperate. One is desperate enough to hang around the whole day waiting for employment and the other desperate enough to go in search for more labour to expedite the harvest. The urgency ends with God paying disproportionately to those who work. What are we to make of this God?Firstly, it seems that God is an unfair God. And we all know “unfair”. For those who experience injustice, an unfair God who is generous does not resonate well with us. For example, there are people with top grades who know the unfairness of being denied a place in the university. We know of qualified people whose promotion is denied but instead it is given to less qualified people. In short, merit is unmerited in an unfair society. An unfair God only amplifies the humiliation of the experience of blatant miscarriage of justice.
Therefore, the Gospel is disturbing to say the least. It tells us that we have this God who is generous but his generosity is not bound by the limits of fair-play and justice. And the First Reading sort of supports this point. “Yes, the heavens are as high above the earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts”. God’s way of behaving is not like ours.
To understand this God, we need to consider the question Jesus asked: “Are you envious because I am generous”? Thus, the question is not about justice or fairness but of envy. The first batch of workers had agreed upon a set wage. The subsequent batches of workers were promised a fair wage. Thus, there was no question of injustice. They were paid according to what they had agreed. The sore point came when those who did the least amount of work got the same as those who did a full day’s work.
Envy is something which afflicts all of us. And the language of envy is “that’s not fair”. It often leads to resentment and if left unchecked will eat into our very being. Envy is also amplified if we feel ourselves victimised.[1] Perhaps, our experience of “unfairness” is actually the experience of envy.
The hearers of the parable knew what Jesus was talking about. It was not injustice or unfairness that they were reacting against. The truth was that Jesus had been consorting with sinners and the Gentiles. The Jews and the Pharisees represented those “called” by God at the start of the day... and as such, they thought that they should be privileged. The problem is that God seemed to treat with kindness the late-comers: the sinners and the Gentiles. It was not unfairness on the part of God but envy on the part of the Jews and the Pharisees that God should ever be so kind to those who do not deserve it.
The reaction of the Jews and Pharisees is occasion for our deeper reflexion. As stated, the Jews and the Pharisees represented those privileged to be the first people chosen by God and sinners and Gentiles were plainly Johnnies-come-lately. The relationship between the privilege of the first and the last to be called has a bearing on evangelisation. First of all, the call of God is gratuitous and unmerited on our part. It is God who calls and at any time one is called, the appropriate response is gratitude. Secondly, if one were called first, the honour is more responsibility than it is privilege.
And this is where we need to be more aware of our responsibility to those who come after us. Are we doing enough to bring the Good News of our calling to people who have yet to know Jesus Christ? That is the gist of the 2nd Reading: I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better, but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake.
In summary, at first glance, we who aim to form a society under the principles of justice and fair-play are somewhat taken aback by the Gospel because God seems to be unfair. But upon closer reflexion, we realise that the Jews and Pharisees were envious of God’s generosity and sadly, their envy blinded them to their responsibility. A calling does not accord greater privilege. On the contrary, we are yoked with greater responsibility to bring the good news of salvation to people everywhere. On our shoulders lies the Gospel. To be called first is to be a light to the world. We are to be the Good News and that is why the 2nd Reading ends appropriately: “avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ”.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Just as an aside, you know that we sometimes remember things we read or hear. Well, I remember a primary text from Plato on the question of Justice. I can’t remember which one of his works but I remember very clearly that one of his characters in a discussion said something like this: “Justice is for those who do not have the guts to be unjust”. We dare not be unjust and so we don’t like others to be unjust. There is an element of envy in this, I think!!
