25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
Isaiah 55:6-9,
Psalm 144:2-3,8-9,17-18
Philippians 1:20-24,27
Matthew 20:1-16
GOD IS NOT A HUMAN BEING
Sometimes when things do not go the way we want or the way we think they should, we forget the fact that God is not a human being like us. We often want to teach God how to do his work. We talk about what we would have done if we were God.
As God tells us in the first reading of today through the prophet Isaiah, his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. God does not think and act like us human beings. We may spend the whole of our lives trying to understand God, but we will never be able to fully understand the nature of God. St Augustine after his numerous writings, especially his masterpiece on the nature of God and the 5 ways of knowing God, had before his death, asked that his writings be burnt because they were not adequate to describe who God is.
St Paul in the second reading was thinking in a way that many of us Christians will see to be abnormal. How will someone prefer death to life? Filled with the Spirit of God, he was thinking in the spirit when he said that there is nothing in this world to be fighting for. He would prefer to die and be with God than to be alive in this world.
In the gospel reading, Jesus presents to us a parable that shows how human beings think and act. We are always concerned about our gain or profits and we have a high sense of entitlement. God does not think that way. The labourers who came early were more interested in what they would gain, thus they calculated what was due to them before they started. Those who came late seem not to bother about what they would get, they just started working, feeling guilty that they started late. This is how many of us will start early but will not do as much as those who come in later in life.
Reading the gospel reading literarily, one would easily say that the landowner was unjust to pay those who come early the same amount as those who came in the evening and worked for just one hour. The concern here is not just about justice but also mercy and compassion. This is why many of us will pay a small amount for the mango an old woman is selling by the roadside to consumerate with the price due to it in the market instead of giving her what yo survive; meanwhile do not negotiate price in the supermarket. We always think of our gain and loss. No trader will trade like the landowner in the gospel reading.
The parable brings out very well the saying that it is not how far but how well. It is not about how long you have been a Christian, but how well you have practiced the first. Sone people even complained when the thief on the cross with Jesus gained heaven. Some of us may be surprised on the last day when we see some people making heaven before us. You may have been a Christian since you were born or you converted recently, what is important is how well you have practiced the faith. May almighty God help us to be steadfast in our faith. Amen.
Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP
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