SUNDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2011 TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 21: 33 – 43

When my 2 year old nephew started crying, I gave him my mobile phone with the caller tune on, and he immediately stopped crying. I looked at him with a sense of achievement. He started playing with it for sometime. I was bit scared because the mobile phone was not safe in his hands. He could break it at any time. When the time came for me to move away from the place, I tried getting it back from him. He again started crying. He told me in his broken phrase that the phone was his. It was rather an embarrassing situation. At the end of it, my brother had to pull it away from him which made him cry all the more. This would have been the experience of most of us. We try to make the child happy by giving it whatever we have with us, but the moment the child receives the object it thinks that he/she becomes the owner of the object. In the case of child it is understandable because it is not aware of the situation but in the case of adults it is different story altogether.

The leaseholders knew it very well that they were not the owners of the vineyard. Yet they want to become the owners of the vineyard. They go even to the extent of killing the heir of the owner.

The exegesis of the parable is quite simple. The owner is God the Father, the vineyard is the kingdom of God, the tenants are the people of Israel, the different batches of servants are the prophets, the son is Jesus Christ and the new batch of tenants are the Gentiles. This parable gives the summary of the whole salvation history. God created the whole world and made human beings at the stewards to take care of the created world. The human beings due to their disobedience and with a desire to become like God, sinned against Him and broke the covenant. God did not stop here; He sent the judges, kings and the prophets as His messengers. But the people did not listen to them. They humiliated and even killed God’s messengers. God thus finally sends His only Son to redeem the world. But they did worse things to him and crucified Him.

Lessons for today

God has entrusted us with a lot of gifts and talents that could be used for the enhancement or our life and the life of society at large. We are only the stewards of the gifts not the owners. Our houses, house hold articles, our income, bank account, property, health, relationships and every other thing we possess are the gratuitous gifts of God. Whenever we think that we are the owners and whenever we use the gifts and talents for our selfish motives or purely for self promotion without sharing it with our neighbours we would be committing the same mistake of these wicked tenants.

Our lives are largely guided by pragmatism and utilitarianism. Whatever is practical, feasible or useful are considered as the truth. We tend to make use of the people only for our selfish motives. There are a few who will begin a conversation with others only if they want some favours from the individual concerned and once the work is done they move away from that person as if they had not seen that individual at all. What can we say about this? This is the simple example of Utilitarianism. Whenever we want only the benefits and whenever we exploit people for our ends, we commit the same mistake the wicked tenants committed.

This we see it everywhere. Many children abandon their parents in their old age, forgetting the amount of sacrifices the parents have made in bringing up their children. It can also happen in religious settings. Once the person steps down from the power, people tend to ignore them and act as if they have nothing more to do with that person. This happens almost in all the types of relationships. Are we not trying to act like the wicked tenants through our ingratitude and selfishness?

PARABLE OF WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD – SEPTEMBER 18TH - 25th Sunday - (Mt 20: 1-16)

You know what happened on the second day? After receiving their wages, those who came early on the first day, were still angry with the Landlord. “That was too bad on his part. He tells us that we are envious because he was generous. Was he really generous? If yes, why didn’t he give us more? Anyway we shall go late tomorrow”. They came very late the following day, but they were surprised to see those people who came late on the first day were already at work. They were impressed with the landowner who gave them job opportunity and who was very kind to them. They wanted to pay him back with their hard work. The late comers joined them worked till the close of the day. The landowner told the manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay beginning with the first one and then going to the last.’ When those who came early, he gave them the usual wage and some bonus money appreciating their work.  Then when the late comers came, the owner calculated their duration of work and gave money accordingly which was lesser than the daily wage. When they received it they grumbled against the landowner saying, ‘Yesterday when we worked from early morning, you never gave us any bonus and now, you are giving them the bonus and cut short our money. Again the owner told them, I am not doing anything wrong. You are again envious because I am generous with them. I have paid what you deserve. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

This second day is only my imagination, but still it tells us, what Jesus wanted to tell us today. I used to think, why did the landowner treat everyone equally? He should have been bit more generous with those who came early.

During exam days, there are students who prepare their time table bit early and start studying for their exams. We also see others who seem to have good time and just study the previous day. When the results come, the latter may score same marks and sometimes even more marks than the former. It is not the duration that matters but the result. These workers who were idle in the market might have felt hurt. They were regarded useless by the landowners and were not hired for the work. When our protagonist gives them a chance to work, they prove their worth. They would have done the same amount of work as did the others.  The possibility could be, the owner being a far sighted man wanted to attract his workers right at the beginning itself so that these workers may contribute more in the future. Therefore we have no right to question the landowner because he has not done injustice.

But somehow his action seems to be not okay. We feel that something is wrong in his approach. What is that makes us to grumble against the landowner? It is the attitude of comparison. Sadly we are brought up in an atmosphere, where we are either compared with others or we keep comparing ourselves with the other. We are not comfortable with ourselves.

I remember in our earlier seminary days, when there is Bible Quiz or Marian Quiz, there will be some people who study so well and answer. At the end of the quiz, the team that gets first place is awarded with nice prize. Now, all the members of the winning team get the same prize. There will be also a few of us, who get the prize without knowing one single answer. This could easily irritate the ones who study well. ‘We study and answer and these get the benefit of it.’ This argument sounds justifiable. But who are we to question the Lord and His generosity. He can do whatever He wants. He has not done injustice to any. But our attitude of comparison makes us feel bad.

There are several ways of understanding this parable. There are 5 batches of workers coming to work in the field which is compared to the five different stages in the history of salvation namely Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Christ and Christ to present day. Some are of the opinion that Jesus attacked the Pharisees by comparing them with the workers who came early to work as against the tax collectors and Gentiles who came at the close of the day. But it is more fitting to understand this parable as an occasion for Jesus to teach his disciples to overcome the sin of comparison. The disciples were fighting for the prominent place, there was envy, jealousy among them. God’s standards are different. We do should not teach God lessons on justice.

‘Why do we find it so difficult to rejoice over the good that enters other people’s lives, and why do we spend our time calculating how we have been cheated?’

‘For most of us injustice is what happens to our disadvantage, while what happens to our advantage is good luck’

We can imitate others and we can follow the footsteps of great people, these are the positive ways of learning from others but comparing ourselves with others will not help us in anyway. Let us not make our life miserable by comparing ourselves constantly with others. God is the author of our life and He has every right to do whatever He wants.

St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (10: 12) beautifully summarizes this message by saying "But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense."

PARABLE OF WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD – AUGUST 17thWEDNESDAY (Mt 20: 1-16)

You know what happened on the second day? After receiving their wages, those who came early on the first day, were still angry with the Landlord. “That was too bad on his part. He tells us that we are envious because he was generous. Was he really generous? If yes, why didn’t he give us more? Anyway we shall go late tomorrow”. They came very late the following day, but they were surprised to see those people who came late on the first day were already at work. They were impressed with the landowner who gave them job opportunity and who was very kind to them. They wanted to pay him back with their hard work. The late comers joined them worked till the close of the day. The landowner told the manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay beginning with the first one and then going to the last.’ When those who came early, he gave them the usual wage and some bonus money appreciating their work.  Then when the late comers came, the owner calculated their duration of work and gave money accordingly which was lesser than the daily wage. When they received it they grumbled against the landowner saying, ‘Yesterday when we worked from early morning, you never gave us any bonus and now, you are giving them the bonus and cut short our money. Again the owner told them, I am not doing anything wrong. You are again envious because I am generous with them. I have paid what you deserve. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

This second day is only my imagination, but still it tells us, what Jesus wanted to tell us today. I used to think, why did the landowner treat everyone equally? He should have been bit more generous with those who came early.

During exam days, there are students who prepare their time table bit early and start studying for their exams. We also see others who seem to have good time and just study the previous day. When the results come, the latter may score same marks and sometimes even more marks than the former. It is not the duration that matters but the result. These workers who were idle in the market might have felt hurt. They were regarded useless by the landowners and were not hired for the work. When our protagonist gives them a chance to work, they prove their worth. They would have done the same amount of work as did the others.  The possibility could be, the owner being a far sighted man wanted to attract his workers right at the beginning itself so that these workers may contribute more in the future. Therefore we have no right to question the landowner because he has not done injustice.

But somehow his action seems to be not okay. We feel that something is wrong in his approach. What is that makes us to grumble against the landowner? It is the attitude of comparison. Sadly we are brought up in an atmosphere, where we are either compared with others or we keep comparing ourselves with the other. We are not comfortable with ourselves.

I remember in our earlier seminary days, when there is Bible Quiz or Marian Quiz, there will be some people who study so well and answer. At the end of the quiz, the team that gets first place is awarded with nice prize. Now, all the members of the winning team get the same prize. There will be also a few of us, who get the prize without knowing one single answer. This could easily irritate the ones who study well. ‘We study and answer and these get the benefit of it.’ This argument sounds justifiable. But who are we to question the Lord and His generosity. He can do whatever He wants. He has not done injustice to any. But our attitude of comparison makes us feel bad.

There are several ways of understanding this parable. There are 5 batches of workers coming to work in the field which is compared to the five different stages in the history of salvation namely Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Christ and Christ to present day. Some are of the opinion that Jesus attacked the Pharisees by comparing them with the workers who came early to work as against the tax collectors and Gentiles who came at the close of the day. But it is more fitting to understand this parable as an occasion for Jesus to teach his disciples to overcome the sin of comparison. The disciples were fighting for the prominent place, there was envy, jealousy among them. God’s standards are different. We do should not teach God lessons on justice.

‘Why do we find it so difficult to rejoice over the good that enters other people’s lives, and why do we spend our time calculating how we have been cheated?’

‘For most of us injustice is what happens to our disadvantage, while what happens to our advantage is good luck’

We can imitate others and we can follow the footsteps of great people, these are the positive ways of learning from others but comparing ourselves with others will not help us in anyway. Let us not make our life miserable by comparing ourselves constantly with others. God is the author of our life and He has every right to do whatever He wants.

St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (10: 12) beautifully summarizes this message by saying "But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense."