HOMILY FOR THE 25TH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
Rev.
Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
God’s way is grace. All
God gives us is of grace. No man can earn what God offers him/her; not anyone
of us deserves it. What God gives to us is given out of the generosity of his
heart, and not our merit. God does not give us a pay, but a gift. It is not a
reward, but grace. It is all about grace. There is a difference between labour
and favour. It is true that we can labour. But it is even truer that when God wills
it, it is favour. In a labour that demands a pay, we are paid in consideration
with the time input and the work done. We are rated in consideration with the
amount of labour we are able to do. A perfect example will be the example of
the bricklaying job. The number of bricks one is able to lay determines the
amount he is going to be paid. And that is by counting. The world’s way of
wages may be by counting, but God’s way of wages is by graciousness. In the
world’s way, one can boast that he deserves his pay, but no one can actually
boast of such in the divine realm. God’s way differs from our way.
We notice this different
way of God from ours chiefly in the Gospel (Matt 20:1-16). Jesus told a parable
to his disciples. The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early
in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He employed the first group
in the morning, employed the second in the afternoon, and the third in the
evening. When it was time to pay them, he paid all an equal amount. But the
first group murmured against such equal pay. But he made them to understand
that the way they are thinking is not the way he is thinking for he is allowed
to do what he chooses with what belongs to him. And in this line, the last can
be the first as the first can be the last. This means that anyone who considers
himself first must be on alert to avoid becoming the last out of jealousy and
greed. The First lesson to be drawn from this episode is that the
grace of God cannot be affected or influenced by the whims and caprices of
person’s around. This grace is one that provides work for us. The householder
is God. God’s provides the field on which we work. He desires us to work and be
enriched.
The Second lesson is
that God is one who goes out to seek and call men to work. It is not the
workers who come to him. In the world’s way, workers seek for job and go to the
masters, but in God’s way, God seeks out his workers. And this is marvellous
grace; for the son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost (cf. Luke
19:10). He wants us to work and constantly calls us to work; the harvest is
indeed great, but the labourers are few (Mat. 9:37-38). The Third lesson is that
we are warned to remain steadfast when we receive great privilege of being
called so early. Be you aware that in later days, others will be called, and
you must not claim a special honour and place over them. There are people who
think that because they have been members of the Church before others, and for
that the Church belongs to them and can dictate its policy. Such people resent
the rise of a new generation with somewhat different plans and ways of worship
and organization. In Christendom, seniority does not necessarily mean honour.
The fourth lesson
is the spirit with which we work for God. There was an agreement with the first
group for a denarius. For the second group, there was no agreement but a word
of trust that they would be given their due. For the third, there was no
agreement neither was there any word of trust. The first were concerned with
their pay; that is, what to get after their work. But in the case of those
engaged later, they just needed to work. All they needed was an opportunity to
work and not just for the pay. They willingly left the reward to the master’s
choice. Our first concern is not in our pay. Some will ask: what do we get out
of it? We work for the joy of service. This is exactly why the first will be
the last for many a man who in our eyes worked so hard on earth may get a low
place in the kingdom because rewards were his sole aim. Some who the world sees
as poor will be great in heaven because they never thought in terms of reward
but worked for the joy of serving. This is a paradox actually. For the world,
the more we aim at earthly rewards, the more the material success. But for
heaven, the more interest in the earthly reward, the less the recompense. He who
aims at rewards looses it, but he who forgets it gains it. God’s way is not our
way.
The First Reading
(Isaiah 55:6-7) of today strikes the head at the nail when it says: for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways. This is purely an invitation that urges us
to make a leap out of the way we impose our thoughts on God, or think God to
act the way we do. Anyone who desires to eat must work first. Anyone who
desires to drink wine has to buy it; yes. But whenever God wills it, he can
declare free feeding (as it happened in the feeding of the five thousand in Matt
14:13-21) and free drinking (as he did during the wedding at Cana in John
2:1-12). In fact, the 55th chapter of the prophet Isaiah can be
summarized as a call to grace. The beginning of the chapter makes a general
invitation to all who are thirsty (v.1a) and have no money (v.1b) to come and
drink and eat without cost. This invitation was made as an aftermath of a
restored people. It is a call to a feast that invites the Israelites to a
moment of restoration of their heritage. The exilic years may have made them
hopeless and made people to ridicule them thinking of them as a failed nation
and even wishing them stagnancy in nation building. But that was not the way
God was thinking of them. God was planning freedom, restoration, happiness, joy
and plenitude for them. This transformation was possible because God’s ways are
not our ways.
The world may wish you
remain a slave, you remain a spinster, you remain a bachelor, you remain a
tenant, you remain a student, you remain a job seeker, you remain in tears, you
remain in pains, you remain ignorant, you remain childless, you remain in
prison, you remain poor, you remain degenerated, you remain in poverty, you
remain in sin, you remain in darkness. But God will wish you become a
master, you become a wife, you become a husband, you become a teacher or a
graduate, you become a worker, you become happy, you gain, you become
knowledgeable, you bear a child, you become a free person, you become rich, you
become regenerated, you swim in plenty, you become holy, and you experience the
light. And this is why the prophet would exclaim: the people walking in
darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matt. 4:16) and the three wise
men exclaimed that we have seen his star and we have come to pay him homage
(Matt 2:2).
Every one of us wants
to behold the light and to move out of darkness. Left for the world, many will
remain in darkness. However, such intention is frustrated because God’s way is
not our way. In conclusion and just as the Psalmist says the Lord is close to all who call him (Ps. 145:18a), and being aware of the difference of
God’s way from humans, we must report every worry to God whose grace is
bountiful and marvellous. Just make sure your manner of life is worthy of the
Gospel as St. Paul admonishes in the Second Reading (Phil. 1:20c-24.27a). I wish you a blessed week ahead. God bless you.
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