Parables are teaching stories that are meant to disturb the listener. Today we hear perhaps the most disturbing of Jesus’ parables, the laborers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1-16a). It’s harvest time, and a vineyard owner must bring his crop in quickly before the grapes over-ripen. His ordinary employees need supplementing, so he hires extra day laborers, promising them a day’s wage. But the first group he hires still are not enough to accomplish the work, so he continues hiring throughout the day. The parable provokes the listener by being very explicit about the hiring times: dawn, 9 o’clock, noon, 3 o’clock, and finally 5 o’clock. Finally it is evening, and pay time. To the outrage of both the laborers and also the parable’s listeners, the landowner pays everyone the same daily wage. Probably it was a denarius, a Roman gold coin, adequate to provide for the needs of a family for a day. The landowner asks the upset laborers: Are you envious because I am so generous? Well, actually, they probably were — and so are we. It’s just not fair. We wouldn’t want to be treated that way!
But of course Jesus is talking about the character of God, as represented by the landowner. If the landowner paid workers a percentage of the “usual daily wage,” depending on the time when they started working, all the workers except the first group would go home with less than they needed to meet their family’s needs that day. Jesus is teaching that God desires that every person has their basic needs met. This principle about providing for basic human needs is prescribed in Catholic Social Teaching as an obligation of both governments by law and of individuals through generosity. People’s needs are not all the same, as we well know. Sometimes, it is true, mistakes people make are responsible for their dire situations. But much more often, “day laborers” are people born in the wrong place, people born with less health or ability than others, and so many other “less than” measures. The landowner is wealthy. He is not only being fair, he is being generous. Would we really want a God who was only fair to us?
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post September 20, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Generosity: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.