27th Ordinary Sunday (Cycle A)

Isa 5:1-7                      Phil 4:6-9                    Mt 21:33-43

Daniel Webster was a famous Englishman. He compiled the famous Webster English Dictionary. Once, someone asked him, “What is that often lingers in your mind?” Webster replied, “My individual accountability to God”.

Our accountability to God is the central theme of today’s gospel, which we are called upon to reflect. We note in the parable of the wicked tenants, that they were not only unaccountable to the vineyard owner, but intentionally planned to abduct the vineyard, which made them even to kill the son of the vineyard owner.

The parable of the wicked tenants has two characteristics: 1. Historical 2. Predictive

1. Historical: It means this parable covers the history of Israel from God’s perspective, just as God sees it. The landowner is God. The vineyard is Israel. The tenants are the chosen race of Israel and their religious leaders. The servants are the prophets, and lastly the Son is Jesus Christ. Jesus summarizes the whole of history of Israel from God’s perspective in a story form.

2. Predictive: This means Jesus through this parable predicted or revealed exactly what was going to happen to Israel, that is, they were going to reject God’s own Son; and because of their rejection and cruelty, God was going to reject them by giving the Kingdom of God to another people and no more Israelites alone would be the chosen people of God.

In fact Jesus was predicting the emergence of new set of people who would worship God in the ways of Christ. To put in other words, there would emerge a community of true fellowship which would act in Christian ways and would bear fruit. It was a prophecy made by our Lord. There are several important facts that need to be understood at this point in order to grasp the significance of the Lord’s prophecy.

Israel was the nation of people raised up by God. In what all ways, God made them to be privileged?

a) Israel bore up the name of God in the world.

b) Israel was given the very words of God, that is, the Word of God, the revelation of God.

c) Israel was a greatly privileged people in spiritual things.

d) Israel was given the glorious plan of salvation that a Messiah would come to save them.

e) Israel was given the glorious privilege of being God’s witnesses upon the earth.

But the people of Israel miserably failed to realize these privileges which they enjoyed. Israel failed God in its God-given mission. Therefore, Jesus prophesied that God would turn against them and would take away His kingdom from them and would entrust it to another people, and it happened for the following reasons:

i) God turned from Israel because they rejected and killed the promised Messiah, God’s own Son.

ii) God turned from Israel because they were unfruitful.

iii) God turned from Israel because they were unfaithful.

iv) God turned from Israel because they failed to uphold the gospel values.

v) God turned from Israel because they were a disobedient and obstinate people.

vi) God turned from Israel because of their unbelief.

vii) God turned from Israel because they were unaccountable and disloyal.

Today, this parable is addressed to each one of us. All these would apply to us, if we have a similar tendency as that of the wicked tenants. We are living in a time, in a scenario where unaccountability is seriously addressed, whether the person is a leader in high position or an ordinary citizen. If you persist to be unaccountable, what is given to you will be removed from you and given to another. Although God is merciful, compassionate, lenient, at the same time, He also never fails to be a serious judge like our judicial system which is sometimes strict in keeping to the law.

In our lives, when others turn unaccountable to us, we become quickly furious and it is indigestible to us. If that is the case with human relations, how then we can expect God to be still patient with our unaccountable nature and actions. Jesus used parables like parable of the prodigal son, parable of the lost coin, parable of the lost sheep, and parable of the vineyard workers, to bring out the merciful, compassionate, kind nature of God. But also Jesus did not fail to strongly record that God will not be forever patient with our unbecoming acts. And this message is strongly brought out by Jesus in today’s gospel.

We have ample examples from the Old Testament to show that the same God, who was kind to the cry of the people of Israel when they were under Egyptian slavery, did not also spare anybody who intentionally went against Him. Moses, who was chosen to lead the people of Israel into the promised land of Canaan, due to his unfaith at a moment, was denied to enter into the land of Canaan. Saul, who was chosen by God to be the first king of Israel, had to encounter death by his own soldier due to his disloyalty to the Lord’s ways. King David was gloriously chosen to succeed Saul, due to his sustained personal sins had to experience the pain of the loss of his first born Absalom who was hanging between heaven and earth (Cf. 2Sam 18:9). Even after many pleadings of Abraham, God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah. No one will be spared from the sight of the Lord, if they do not repent and continue to give justifications for their disloyal acts.

We need to have a balanced view about the nature of God who is both merciful and a righteous judge. The nature of God cannot be fixed to one of these two extremes. His mercy will be upon those who begin to repent and ready to make up for their faults. Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector stand as a model for us. He not only repented but undid what he unjustly procured. The temporal powers we hold are nothing when compared to the majestic omnipotence of God. The wicked tenants failed to realize this. Often we are hypnotized and mesmerized by the temporal powers thinking that they would guard us till the last. But it will not because they do not have the internal sustainability in itself in comparison to the vast spiritual power. Let us not intentionally continue to test the patience of God anymore!

25th Ordinary Sunday (Cycle A)

Isa 55:6-9                    Phil 1:20-24,27                   Mt 20:1-16

The Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, in his famous book An Idea of Justice published in 2009 puts across a story to make his point clear. Three children – Anne, Bob and Carla – are quarrelling over a flute: Anne claims the flute on the ground that she is the only one of the three who knows how to play it; Bob demands it on the basis that he is from a poor family and unlike others, he has no other toys to play with and it would therefore mean a lot to him if the flute were given to him; and Carla says that it belongs to her because she has made it with her own labour. The important thing to note here is that none of them questions their rival’s argument but claims that his or hers is the most persuasive. 

So, who deserves the flute? Should it go to Bob who hails from a poor family, for whom it represents the only source of entertainment as he has no other toys to play with? Or to Anne who can actually make practical use of it; or to Carla to whom it must belong by virtue of her right to the fruits of her labour? The answer, according to Amartya Sen, is that there is actually no one “right” answer to this puzzle. The point he tries to emphasize here is that there is no one perfect process or criterion to arrive at a conclusion that would be acceptable to all.

The question as to who really deserves the flute can be decided in many ways – either through a process of reasoning or on compassionate grounds such as charity or by majority opinion or by an arbitrary method like tossing the coin. One of the things that Amartya Sen tries to prove in his book is this: Who gets the flute depends on the idea of justice one has. Certainly our idea of justice varies from person to person.

Similarly, Jesus’ notion of justice exposed in the parable of the labourers, whether acceptable to us or not depends on our idea of justice. Whatever may be our idea of justice, but the invitation given to us through the liturgy of the word is to make Jesus Christ’s outlook of justice as our own.

This is a parable most of us would be disturbed about. The parable does not seem to be convincing for all of us. It is a hard teaching for us to digest. How those who toiled little could be equated with those who have toiled, suffered, experienced the pain of the work, and spent all their energy all throughout the day? Apparently the parable does not seem to provide a justification for being equally paid. Here is where we need to look into the notion of justice Jesus had.

Jesus is giving a new dimension of justice. The notion of justice in the mind of Jesus is interwoven with charity. The meeting point or encounter between justice and charity is not something friendly and often rivalry if perceived from human logic. This is very crucial to understand. What we should keenly note in the owner of the vineyard is that he was both just and charitable. He paid the amount that he agreed. He did not betray or cheat them. He paid what he promised. By paying an equal amount to the other set of workers who laboured less than the first set of workers, the owner has given them surplus or extra which they do not deserve for the amount of work they have given. This surplus or extra refers to the charity done by the owner. It is not a payment done for their undeserving labour, but a charity done for their need.

By being charitable to others, he was in no way acting unjustly towards the first set of workers. The act of the owner is justified on the grounds of the existential condition of the workers who came later to work. It is not that they were unwilling to work throughout the day, but there was no one to provide the work. If the owner would have paid them even after looking at their attitude of unwilling to work, then certainly what he did would be unjust.

If we rightly understand the justification which lies on the side of the owner, then, the attitude of the first set of workers towards the others is one of jealousy. The parable teaches us to become aware that the basic need of every human being is the same. The persons who were called at the last hour had the same basic need as that of those who were called for work in the morning, mid-morning, and at noon.  The parable exposes the social evil of unemployment. The owner of the vineyard was able to sense that. He was able to understand at large that the others did not have opportunity to invest their labour and energy in order to earn their livelihood and at the same time their basic need is inevitable. It is a matter of survival and also a lack of opportunity. The urge for survival and the impossibility of an opportunity to earn the survival is the most utter condition of many in the world. This understanding made him to surpass the acceptable framework of justice and to act on charitable grounds.

Let me put a pertinent question to you: Does a person who has no means to earn his or her living has a right to exist in this world? Certainly yes! If your answer is otherwise, then it would imply that those who are insane, physically deficient, old-aged should not survive. We should situate the parable in the wider context of the human community. God is so compassionate with everyone. As a matter of justice, if He should judge us and provide us according to our capacities, our dispositions and our actions, then it may apply to some of us that we do not deserve the life we have now. It is purely as a matter of charity, compassion, mercy, kindness that surpasses justice we still have the Divine Providence.

So far, the exposition we had on the parable was based on a social context. Looked at from the context of our Christian community, the parable invites us to check our attitude we have about our fellow brethren. The parable gives a serious warning. Since many have received the great privilege of coming in the Christian Church and fellowship very early, right at the beginning, they cannot claim a special honour and a special place. All persons, no matter when they come, are equally precious to God.

There are people who think that, because they have been members of a Church for a long time, the Church practically belongs to them and they can dictate its policy.  In the Christian Church seniority does not necessarily mean honour. Based on seniority we tend to have an exclusivistic mentality. Therefore, the perpetrators of evil, people belonging to other religions, those who engage in unbecoming acts are seen to be undeserving of Divine providence, because we think their capacity and disposition does not equate to the blessings of God they receive, as we note in the parable that the first set of workers thought that the other set of workers who came later do not deserve the same amount as they received.

If our attitudes and mentality is similar to that of the first set of workers then the parable should hit us and break that mentality which is unchristian. The words of John the Baptist which target this mentality in the Pharisees and Sadducees is targeted to us now: The axe is already laid at the root of the tree (Mt 3:10). It is up to us to uproot this unchristian mentality!