Don't Worry About What Others Get...

Don't worry about what others get - thank God for all His gifts to YOU!



Sept. 18 - XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time


Trade Unions won't like the Gospel today - nor, if it goes to that, will whoever is giving the homily in your church! There are two points to keep in mind: a parable must not be pressed to the wall and parsed to its last sentence and, secondly, God's ways are not our ways and He does not have to conform to the logic of our thinking. He cannot do wrong . . . but He can do something we might not expect.


The First Reading expresses precisely this concept of the divine independence: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways." And what is the essential difference? God is rich in mercy and, if you like, "lives to forgive." So even the greatest sinner can turn to Him for mercy. But, there is a catch: the sinner must convert, "forsake his way." All very obvious, isn't it?


The Responsorial Psalm reads like the joyful hymn of the forgiven sinner - and are we not all in that category? This is one more part of the Liturgy that we can incorporate into our daily prayer which - albeit with the larger Pauline Prayer Book -may become a bit monotonous even for the best of us.


Turning now to the Second Reading, we have once more a wonderful statement of love by our holy Patron: "for me, life is Christ and death is gain!" So Paul is not agonizing over his past but, as he says elsewhere, " forgetting the past I go forward to the future." Nor is he agonizing over what God does and if it is, or is not, correct by our standards. "For me, to live is Christ and death is a gain." Now if you and I could move closer to that mentality how much happier we would be!


This brings us to the "difficult" Gospel. There is a parallel here between the early workers and the second brother in the story of the Prodigal Son: the stay-at- home individual is not complaining - really - about his own situation but is filled with anger that the vagabond has received anything at all. So also the workers of the early hour became fixated on those who had come last.


Sometimes we ourselves fall into that mentality: X has done so much wrong that he/she cannot be forgiven. That is not what God says. The parable can be applied to the Jewish people who did not recognize the Messiah though they were " the workers of the early hours" and now we Gentiles - "the Church" are the favorite sons. Truly we and God think in different ways ... or perhaps He thinks and we just indulge in mind- wandering!


~September 2011 Concord