Gospel for the Day with Pointers

Sunday, 21st September,2014

Ord. Wk 25th

Matthew 20:1-2, 8-13, 15-16

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard.

‘In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.”  So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each. When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each.  They took it, but grumbled at the landowner saying, “The men who came last have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat.”

‘He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius?  Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be envious because I am generous?”

‘Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’

• •In the Parable, the workers were jobless and were waiting to be hired.  The vineyard owner, out of compassion, hired them at different times during the day as they were all without any work and livelihood.
  
  
• •If we employ any workers, we are obliged to pay them a just wage and be compassionate and caring to all peoples under our care.
  
  
• •How Christ-like are we in the way we treat our employees or people who are poor and needy?