XXV Sunday of Ordinary Time

Por: Redacción de Palabra Nueva

Palabra de Hoy
Palabra de Hoy

 

 

September 20, 2020

Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, asks us today:

“You go to my vineyard too.”

My ways are not your ways, saith the Lord.

 

Readings

First Reading

Reading the book of Isaiah 55, 6-9

Look for the Lord as he lets himself be found, invate him while he is near.
May the wicked abandon his way, and the wrongdoer his plans;
may he convert to the Lord, and he will have mercy, on our God, who is rich in forgiveness.
Because my plans are not your plans, your ways are not my ways
—Oracle of the Lord. How far the heavens of the earth are,
thus distance my ways from yours, and my plans from your plans.

Psalm

Come out 144, 2-3. 8-9. 17-18

R/. Nearby is the Lord of those who invoke Him.

Day after day, I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, he deserves all praise, his greatness is incalculable. R/.

The Lord is merciful and merciful, slow to anger and rich in mercy;
the Lord is good to all, he is affectionate with all his creatures. R/.

The Lord is just in all his ways, He is kind in all his actions.
Nearby is the Lord of those who invoke Him, of those who sincerely invoke Him. R/.

Second Reading

Reading the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians 1, 20c-24. 27th

Brothers:
Christ will be glorified in my body, by my life, or by my death.
For me life is Christ and dying a gain. But if living this mortal life involves fruitful work, I don’t know what to choose.
I find myself in this alternative: on the one hand, I wish to leave to be with Christ, who is by far the best; but, on the other hand, staying in this life I see that it is more necessary for you.
The important thing is that you lead a life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Gospel

Reading the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 20, 1-16

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven resembles an owner who at dawn went out to hire day laborers for his vineyard. After adjusting with them in one denarium per day, he sent them to the vineyard.
He went out again in the middle of the morning, saw others who were in the square out of work and said:
‘Go to my vineyard too and I’ll pay you the right thing.’
They were.
He left again around noon and mid-afternoon, and did the same.
He went out at the end of the afternoon and found others, standing there, and said:
‘How come you’re here all day without working?’
They replied:
‘No one’s hired us.’
He said to them:
‘Go to my vineyard too.’
When it got dark, the owner said to the foreman:
‘Call the day laborers and pay them the day, starting with the last ones and finishing for the first ones.’
The sunset people came and received a denario each. When the first ones arrived, they thought they would receive more, but they also received one denary each. Upon receiving him they began to protest against the master:
‘The latter have worked only an hour and treated them just like we have, who have put up with the weight of the day and the embarrassment.’
He replied to one of them:
‘Dude, I don’t do you any injustice. Don’t we adjust in a denary? Take yours and go. I want to give the latter just like you. Don’t I have the freedom to do whatever I want in my business? Or are you going to be jealous because I’m good?’
Thus, the last will be first and first, last.”

 

Comment

The first sentence we find in today’s Word is a mandate… Look for the Lord. invóquenlo… become Him. enter the Lord’s way and accept your plans. It is a clear and direct call to conversion, to change of mindset, because God is rich in forgiveness and will have mercy, says the prophet Isaiah. Psalm 144 completes it beautifully: “The Lord is merciful and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in mercy; the Lord is good to all, he is affectionate with all his creatures.” If we sincerely invoke Him, He will come closer and manifest Himself.

Certainly it can also happen to us what the Jews in exile to whom the prophet Isaiah addressed. They had settled into an annodine and routine way of life in which they had secured the elemental to survive. They had become accustomed to living without authentic freedom, had lost their diluted cultural and religious identity in environmental pagan culture, and thought only of the immediate and the material. God did not care too much, let alone what He expected of His chosen people. The deafness and disinterest towards the transcendent had surprisingly invaded people in principle very religious and sensitive to the supernatural. They neither thought of God nor spoke of Him; let alone lived according to Him. Banishment and slavery were its outer natural habitat, but above all interior, moody, intimate.

However, God’s plans for them were not those. They’re not for us either. God’s ways were and are much higher. That is why we must wake up, rise up, put themselves in search of God, because in it we are going to live; one’s own and someone else’s. Let’s at least ask ourselves what our plans are, what paths we’re going through. And then let us realize that God also has a plan for each of us; and at the same time proposes a way to go through it and realize it.

No one is in this life by chance. We all have a mission to accomplish, a task to accomplish. And no one better than God knows her and can help us realize it. In it is our true happiness and fullness of life.

In addition, He wants to show us the plan and the way; the plan is our salvation, our full realization; and the way is Jesus himself, Son of God made man by us and for our salvation. We may “pass” God, but He “does not pass” from us. That’s why it’s worth continuing in your quest from faith.

Today’s gospel parable shows us, first of all, that same loving and merciful face of the Father, who pays us not on our merits but according to his infinite goodness and mercy; breaks with the hunched concept of justice that we defend, to teach us that their righteousness and holiness go beyond our works; their paths, their criteria are much higher than ours. That is why for Him too “his first” are “our last”.

Today’s parable is riddled with symbols full of very interesting meanings, which we must recognize and learn, some of them common to other parables used by Jesus.

The vineyard is the life, the life of each, but also the life of all in common, society, nature, the universe, creation. The Lord is the owner and we are the day laborers, the workers. How many times are we wrong to think that we own our own lives, of “our things”, of the lives of others, of the universe! Only God is the owner and lord; we are mere depositaries, administrators, workers of a gift, of a gift that is life itself.

The initiative is part of God, as in the parable; He is the one who calls us and sends each of us to live and make our lives fruitful; to discover and carry out the mission for which he has created and placed us in the world. Leave, laziness, dissatisia, excuse, infertility, or infertility do not go with God. Work in life is part of God’s plan. In no way can it, wrongly, be considered a punishment a consequence of the sin of origins; if anything, fatigue or tiredness. But the work well done also produces great satisfaction and happiness. God wants us to work, and to work well and with responsibility. What is your homework or mission in life? Understanding it from God will make you happier.

And each one is called by the Lord at a different time. at dawn, mid-morning, noon, mid-afternoon, last minute. Because each of us is unique to God and God has his moment for each one. Nor are our times and measurements the Lord’s times and measurements. How important it is to discover the moment and not let it go… seek God while he lets himself be found, while he is near! God gives us all the opportunity to discover and love Him, but not in the same way or at the same time. Nor does everyone entrust us with the same task or the same way. How important it is to understand this so as not to judge God or others!

The day laborers of the parable became jealous and envious because they did not understand the actions of the owner of the vineyard; they thought it was unfair. God’s actions are also difficult for us to understand. So many times whys come out of our mouths as abundantly as they come out of the mouths of a young child who does not understand the actions of his father or mother. That not understanding does not lead us to envy God’s gifts in others. Let us remember that only God is God and only He knows.

And at dusk in life He will pay us properly, as the owner of the vineyard. It will reward us greatly with eternal life. That’s his promise. Your remuneration shall be neither material nor temporary. We will come to Him with nothing, as we were born, but with a heart full of names. the name of each and every one of us we love and serve, for whom we work in this life. Because in loving and serving God and others is true joy and happiness.

The perfect example of this way of life is in Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. St Paul came to this synthesis at the end of his days, when he saw his departure to the Father’s house next. That’s why he says, “For me life is Christ and dying a gain.” Certainly we must not wait until the last day to begin to die ourselves, to let Christ live in us and we, with our work, be reflections of his glory. The most important thing, as St Paul says, is that we lead a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

Prayer

Ever since I was a kid, Lord Jesus, in a craftsman’s workshop you won bread with the sweat of your forehead. Since then the work acquired a noble and divine alcurnia.

Through work we become companions and collaborators of God and the architects of our history. Work is the anvil where man forges his maturity and greatness, the flour with which he kneads the bread of every day. The material, as it passed through the hands of man, becomes a vehicle of love.

Make me understand, Lord, how much love those who make coats deliver, sow wheat, sweep the streets, build houses, fix breakdowns, listen to problems, or simply study for tomorrow’s work and service.

Give us, Lord, the grace to offer you daily work as a liturgical gesture, as a living mass for your glory and the service of your brothers and sisters. Amen.

(Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga)

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*