OT 25th Sunday September
21, 2014
Is 55:6-9 Ps
145 Phil 1:20-24,27 Mt 20:1-16
This weekend we celebrate baptisms in our parish. And this weekend we celebrate those
catechists who teach us about our faith in Jesus Christ. What a gift it is to receive new life in
Christ through baptism! What an
incredible richness it is to continue learning about the mystery of this new
life in Christ. The mystery isn’t
difficult for us to understand. It is
all summed up in God’s immense love and mercy for us. The mystery opens up for us continually when
we love God and neighbor in return.
For these little ones who we baptize this weekend, let us
think about what we want them to inherit from the church. Parents promise to be the first and best
teachers of the faith. Which, of course,
implies that parents have an obligation to continue learning and growing in our
faith in Jesus. And as a Church, we have
an obligation to one another – creating a culture of worship and learning and service
in our parish so that these little ones will inherit a lively church full of
people who truly love God and one another.
Jesus describes this relationship with God in the parable
from Matthew 20. It is an odd parable at
first glance, but one that is quite profound once we get into it. So let’s explore what it teaches us about the
faith we receive and hand on to our children.
Let’s begin with an example.
Ladies, consider the good husband for you. He is one who is kind and tender towards you,
but tough enough with the outside world to keep your home safe. He is willing to sacrifice for you, and quite
frankly, he would die for you if necessary to protect you. As a contrast, what about the guy who wants
to marry you for your money or your looks and whatever else he can get out of
the relationship with you. And if you don’t
produce the way he wants, he leaves for something else.
Or let’s consider the good friend. That person is kind, considerate, generous,
and accepting. They are a friend even in
times of trouble, and love us even when we are at our worst. As a contrast how about hanging out with
shallow people who will only stick around when it is fun, but will gossip about
you and stab you in the back if it helps them get ahead.
I think we get the idea.
The good relationship is based on a self-sacrificial kind of love. The other relationships are more like
mercenaries who use other people for their selfish ambitions.
The parable of the landowner opens this idea for us. The landowner is the Lord. He comes to us and finds us, inviting us to
this great project of building up the kingdom – with this image of laborers in
the vineyard. Some are called early to
help, and some are called later in the day.
The landowner offers even the latecomers a great generosity with a full day’s
pay. And he offers the all-dayers the
same good reward. But some of the
all-dayers grumbled that it wasn’t fair.
In the parable Jesus illustrates a problem that many people
have in their relationship with God by way of contrast. Jesus himself offered the perfect example of
love of God and neighbor. Remember when
Jesus said this; “greater love has no one
than this, to lay down his life for his friends.” And so Jesus laid down his life for us – he
was willing to suffer the humiliating and painful death of the cross - for
us. He didn’t gain anything out of that
gift except the outpouring of his blood just like the outpouring of his love.
The grumblers in the parable did not exercise mutual love or
gratitude. Instead they treated their relationship
with the landowner as one that made them more like a mercenary than a
friend. They wanted what they could get
out of it for their own gain. This is
the problem that we sometimes have in relating with God. We treat him more like a sugar daddy. We want to have what we can get out of
him.
So let’s bring it down to the here and now. The mercenary comes to Mass hoping to be
entertained or maybe to punch their Sunday obligation “hell-fire insurance card.” And if the music or the preacher or the altar
servers or whoever or whatever else doesn’t tickle their fancy they become
bored or angry. They are here for what
they can get out of it. They aren’t
interested in Christian service. They
don’t want to learn anything new. They
are spiritually shallow and so the word of God doesn’t take root in them. And when the going gets tough they leave for
the next thing that tickles their fancy.
But the true friend of Jesus comes to Mass to offer
themselves in love to Our Lord and to one another. They are ready to worship and give it their
all. They are ready to be formed by the
Word of God, to learn and to grow spiritually.
They are ready to be transformed by the Eucharist into the loving image
of Jesus. They are willing to give their
lives in love and humble service. These people
would even give their lives as martyrs for the love of Jesus and of his Church.
Perhaps all of us struggle with our inner mercenary. And hopefully all of us want to be that
faithful disciple of Jesus. So the
question before us is this: in the end,
what will we have chosen? And what will
we teach our children to choose?
I pray that our answer will lead us to be the church that
Jesus needs us to be. A church with a
dynamic culture of worship and service. A
church that leads many people to a saving and sacramental relationship with
Jesus and with his Church. A church that
shows us how to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. A Church that brings about the kingdom of
heaven here on earth, and shows us all the way to God.
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