Jesus teaches us to forsake the ways and thoughts of the world.  Replacing them with those of God, we become fools before the world, yet wise before God.

To forsake the needy is a sure sign that one follows the ways and thoughts of the world.  And the parable of the rich fool shows that the rich man lives by them.

The rich man is a fool, according to God, but not according to the world.  The world considers wise the affluent people who are locked up in themselves.  Concerned about their wealth and well-being only, they keep hoarding goods and being merry.  That is why they do not know how brief life is and they lack wisdom of heart.

On the other hand, the landowner in today’s gospel refuses to forsake the unemployed.  He goes out five times to hire workers for his vineyard, which suggests a bountiful harvest.  But the harvest does not leave him self-absorbed and indifferent, but rather open and caring towards the not so fortunate.

And not only does the landowner not forsake anyone who is idle.  He, moreover, makes the late-comers equal to the early-comers.  The latter have surely toiled more than the former.  But he cares more about the workers’ needs than the work they have done.  That is why each worker receives what he, along with his family, needs each day to survive.

No, the vineyard owner cannot forsake the workers who are not getting a living wage.  He does not want them working, as many do today, yet unable still to meet their basic needs.

Undoubtedly, the landowner stands for the ways and thoughts of the kind and generous God.  And what matters to God is that we live in a way worthy of Christ’s Gospel of the kingdom of God.  This life is the wage on which God and his co-workers agree.

God does not want to forsake us without our enjoying this life.

The life worthy of the Good News is full communion with God and our fellow human beings.  We prepare for this fellowship by behaving according to the beatitudes, neither conforming to the world nor being haughty.  And we hasten it, taking the way that teaches that to be first is to be the slave of all.  We receive, besides, a pledge of it, of the future glory, when no one among us go hungry or thirsty.

Lord Jesus, let us not forsake anyone in need.  May our feet be beautiful upon the mountains as we what you did.  In that way, we will go from earth to heaven (SV.EN XII:80).

24 September 2017
25th Sunday in O.T. (A)
Is 55, 6-9; Phil 1, 20c-24. 27a; Mt 20, 1-16a

27 September 2017
Solemnity of St. Vincent de Paul
Is 52, 7-10; 1 Cor 1, 26 – 2, 2; Mt 5, 1-12a