Wednesday, 21 August 2024. Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11, Ps. 23, Matthew 20:1-16
“Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.” (Matthew 20:13-14)
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus tells the parable of the Landowner to teach us to avoid pride in our lives, whether based on our material possessions or our spiritual wealth. Jesus wants us to know how equal we are before God, our creator.
- A landowner recruits people to his vineyard and agrees with each how much he would pay at the end of the day’s work. Each person could bargain for their pay before they started the work. Everyone got exactly what he bargained for at the end of the day’s work. The problem started when those who had earlier agreed to be paid a denarius in the morning realised that even those who started work in the evening got the same denarius.
- Like these workers in the vineyard, what separates us from each other is unimportant. There is no need to look down on anyone or take anyone to be a god because even if it seems we are better or worse than others, we are all equal before God. Jesus has said it all: “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”
- The essence of the Christian life is COLLABORATION, not COMPETITION. Why engage in fights with others? A few years from now, we will all have become dust under the ground. Avoid looking down on anyone, as no one can see the future. Imagine the workers employed in the morning mocking (or even maltreating) the ones employed in the evening, not knowing they were not better off.
- In our first reading, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against the bad shepherds leading the people astray. The progress and development of any society and its destruction lie heavily on the quality of its leadership. In a society like ours, where politics is conceived as the most viable business, we have a lot of shepherds who, rather than feed the sheep, feed on the sheep. Let us examine ourselves: “What kind of shepherd am I? Is God proud of me?
- Today, we remember Pope Pius X. He was born in the village of Riese, near Venice, and was one of ten children of a very poor family. He was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 23. He was successively bishop of Mantua and Venice and was elected Pope, against his wishes, in 1903. As Pope, he sought to “restore all things in Christ.” He campaigned for the freedom of the Church from state control, notably in countries such as Poland, where the Russian Orthodox authorities were oppressing the Catholic people. At the same time, he barred the clergy from the temporal administration of social organisations, which was often a cause of grave difficulties. Similarly, he banned the formation of political associations that claimed exclusive religious sanction for their political programme, whether of the Left or the Right. He revised the code of Canon Law, founded an institute for scriptural studies, and initiated the revision of the Latin translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) and liturgy reform.
- He lived in great poverty even when he was Pope and preached sermons every Sunday in the courtyards of the Vatican to anyone who would listen. In his simplicity and goodness of heart, he performed miracles even when he was alive, and the clamour for his canonisation started immediately after his death, on 20 August 1914, broken-hearted at the outbreak of the First World War.
Let us pray: Almighty, ever-living God, teach us to collaborate rather than to compete. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. May God’s abundant blessings be upon us all. (Saint Pius X, Pope. Bible Study: Ezekiel 34:1-11, Ps. 23, Matthew 20:1-16).
@Rev. Fr. Evaristus E. Abu
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