Fr. Leo 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

25th Sunday - Fr. Leo

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways.” (IS 55:9)

These words at the end of our first reading this morning prepare us to receive the Gospel with openness.  God’s ways are not always understandable to us. Faith requires us to trust that God is making all things good for those who place their faith in God.  

Today’s Gospel certainly challenges us to expand our sense of justice through what seems like an utter injustice.  We are set up to not like what the Master does. There is a normal part of us that cries out as we hear that those who worked all day in the heat will receive the same wage as the one who barely worked. 

But, pulling back for a moment, as we admit the freedom of the master to do as he wants, we might understand that his first concern was for everyone to have enough to eat.  As a humanitarian, he can choose to be kind to those who worked less.  I must admit, that it would still be hard to sacrifice so much for so little in comparison to those that came later.  It doesn’t sit well.

However, if we look at it another way we might see it differently.  What if the work was building the Kingdom of God?  Let’s say we labored all our life to be faithful.  Would we not rejoice if others came to salvation, even if it was late in life?  If our faith is genuine we would rejoice with them that they have come into the light and share with us the unity and love of the Holy Trinity.

As believers, we live our lives in the context of being builders of the Kingdom.  All we do and don’t do is living out our calling.  With this as our guiding principle, we can begin to sense a justice that is beyond our own, as high as the heavens, as God’s ways are above our ways.