Wednesday 20th week in ordinary time
"Mt 20:1-16"
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place; and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing; and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the householder, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
They were idle because they didn't have any work. That morning those people thought, 'If by the end of the day I can get one denarius, I will be happy.' They found an employer who offered them work and promised to pay them a denarius. And that's what they got. But they weren't happy. They would have been happy if they hadn't seen the others getting the same money. They lost their happiness because they started comparing and judging the others...
The world is full of these sorts of ungrateful people whose happiness depends not on what they get, but on getting more than others. They are like children unwrapping Christmas presents who, instead of being happy with what they have got, they look at what the others have got and check if they've got more or less than them. Comparisons steal joy. When you compare, you transform everything into a competition. And you always risk being the loser.
Today Jesus refers to those who will go to Heaven even if they convert after a long sinful life; the same Heaven as those who have been good Christians their entire lives. The fellows in the parable thought they deserved their denarius: Eternal Life. But eternal happiness is an undeserved 'gift'. Imagine that you organise your birthday party and one of your friends says to you, 'Don't invite many... so each one of us will have more cake!' Would you have a party with three friends just for that mean reason? No. You would probably just leave that selfish guy out of it. Heaven is a great party and God is like the 'cake'. We can never run out of God in Heaven. There is plenty for everyone! Our joy, on the contrary, would be to share that 'cake' with many people we love. Holy Mary, Queen of the Apostles, help me to bring many souls to the Party.
