CATHOLICISM
God has blessed us all with the gift of life. While we were still in the womb, God knew us and formed us. During our entire life on earth, God is with us, showering us with love and mercy. We come together today to praise God for such wonderful love and mercy, but also for the gift of life in the first place. On this first day of Respect Life Month, may we be reminded of the value of all human life and God’s call to cherish life at every stage.
MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS
The basic thought of the Gospel reading is well expressed by the Isaiah passage: “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” Try as one will, it is impossible to find a way in which the payment of the workers in the vineyard could be said to be fair. The owner is generous to the last comers, but why is he not generous to the others as well? It is simply that there is no reckoning up deserts when man meets God.
In the time of Christ Judaism had reached a legalistic state, and the mentality was definitely prevalent that salvation could and must be earned. There was a host of commands which must be fulfilled, and men were divided into two classes, the righteous who were on the road to salvation by fulfilling the commands, and the unrighteous, outcasts despised by those who kept the law. It was this slot-machine conception of God that Jesus opposed by his emphasis on love, for in love there is no calculation of duties, rights and obligations; there is only an open-handed giving without counting the cost, and a grateful receiving. We can never say that we have earned our salvation, or anything from God, but can only stand suppliant before him. The latest workers in the vineyard have not earned what the owner gives them, and the mistake of their envious colleagues is to think that they can deserve well of the owner.
The most devout Christians often secretly find it a little hard to stomach that someone who repents on his deathbed is admitted to the kingdom no less than those who have struggled and suffered all their lives for God’s cause. But this betrays a fundamental misunderstanding. Not only does it presuppose the commercial attitude of reward and punishments from God, but also it neglects the nature of love. The sole relationship of the believer to God must be personal relationship of love, and as such it is its own reward, for it brings happiness also in this life. The greater the struggle and the suffering, the more a Christian turn to God and finds comfort–often the only comfort–in the security of his love and fidelity. But furthermore, fidelity through a long life does bring some advantage over a skimped final conversion, for it may well be–though this is perhaps not invariably so–that the relation-ship of love has so deepened over the years that the Christian, conformed over a long period to the image f Christ, has more capacity for the full enjoyment of God’s company than he who comes to know God only at the last moment. Here it is not a matter of God giving a greater reward, but man being more capable of receiving it.
Of this deep and rewarding relationship with God and with Christ Paul shows himself in the second reading to be the perfect example. Writing as he does under persecution, he is yet filled with the joy of Christ. His life is already united with Christ’s life, and he longs for the fulfilment of final union.
Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32
“The parable of the two sons reminds us that good actions speak louder than fine words.“
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders: “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”
