This Week's Homily

We will be providing one or more of the homilies given at a Sunday Mass on this page each week. To see previous homilies, check out the Homily Archive page.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

To Follow Christ- What is Fair?

Deacon Kevin O'Boyle

Good Morning!
It is fundamental to what it means to be a Christian that we are called to follow Jesus and model our lives around what He did and what He taught. Our readings today reflect different images of what it means to follow Christ. That is, to know and follow the ways of God.

In our first reading from Isaiah, we hear that God’s ways are well beyond our ways. That is, God’s ways are not necessarily the way we would think. If we are to follow Him then, it will probably require that we think differently. But differently how? If we have to think beyond the ways we normally would, how do we know where to go? Let’s look for clues in the rest of the readings.

Our second reading from Philippians has Paul recognizing that Christ is present in him whether he lives or dies. If he lives, he will go on in “fruitful labor”. That is, presumably, a continued life of teaching and spreading the good news. If he dies, he will be with Christ, something he longs for.  But Paul acknowledges it would be better for the Philippians if he continued to live and teach them. Clearly, this reminds us of the importance our lives can take, whether we live or die. Perhaps, there is a clue here, that in seeking a direction for our thoughts we should look at how our actions impact others. We will see more on this in the Gospel.

In our Gospel Jesus presents a parable which, on its face, is probably puzzling to our modern American minds. We generally believe in a basic fairness of things—that each person gets his or her due. The Gospel story at first glance seems to fly in the face of that concept. First, let’s cover the basics. In the story, the landowner is clearly God. The workers are people, all people. As the story goes, a first group of workers are hired early in the morning, followed by several additional sets of workers at later and later times during the day. So, the first group works many more hours than the latter groups. At the end of the day, the workers are paid. The last hired group, who worked only about an hour are given a whole day’s wages. Then, each group comes in order and are given the same amount of wages. Those hired first are angry because they worked all day and were paid the same amount as those who worked just an hour.

To the typical American worker, this treatment of workers seems immediately unfair. Why are the first workers and late comers treated equally? The landowner points out that he is just being generous with his own money, and that he met his obligations to all. The early workers are not satisfied.

I wonder though whether there is not something even deeper there. Is it possible that the landowner knew well the need of the latecomers and decided to meet that need, rather than simply pay what was due? Perhaps the landowner’s actions reflect his observation of the workers’ true needs, rather than just what is due. This would seem to be in keeping with Paul’s observations of the needs of the Philippians over his own desires. So perhaps, one clue our readings give on this is that, rather than looking simply at what is “fair” we should also look at the needs of those impacted by our decisions.

So, perhaps our readings today teach us a new way to look for fairness and equity. Perhaps, instead of looking only at what each person contributes, we should also look at the real needs of the people and adjust our response accordingly. Perhaps we should look at the generosity of God, which can never be outdone. God’s mercy and generosity are deep seas of help awaiting our needs. It is to these needs that St. Faustina calls us to say, “Jesus, I Trust in You”. If our challenge is to mimic the model of our Savior, then sometimes we must look beyond what is simply “fair” to what is justly needed. Isn’t that the way we would like our God to respond to our needs? Isn’t that the way he frequently does respond when our needs outweigh what we might fairly deserve. After all, when compared against the love of a Father who gave us His only begotten Son to live, die, and rise to free us from the bonds of sin, who are we to judge what outweighs fairness? If we have the capability to help others meet their real needs, are we not called to imitate the perfect generosity to the Father and do what we can? It’s something to think about this week. God Bless.