21/09/2008 - 25th. Sunday Ordinary
Time. - Year A
Ist. Readng Is 55,6-9 Psalm 144 2nd. Reading Phil 1,20-27 Gospel Mt
20,1-16
"He has spoken through the prophets". It is the Holy Spirit: He has
no voice of his own to make us hear his inspirations, and therefore he uses
the voice of those who listen within his inspirations. We call them prophets:
men chosen by God to speak for him to all or to someone to whom God wants to
communicate or remind. God chooses whomever he wants, but it is clear that he
chooses who obey him, those who want to be the first to obey to all that they
would then announce. Moses was a prophet, who on the mountain listened the Word
of God and then transmitted it to the people. Elijah was a prophet, who in silence,
listened to the true faith in the true God and then communicated it with power.
There were other prophets in Israel that have said words of exhortation, admonishment,
invited for faith, but also those who have accomplished signs or worked out
significantly to communicate God's message with a language beyond words. This
was to prepare the people for the coming and the welcoming of the Messiah. Even
Jonah is called a prophet, the man who refused the mission to go to the pagan
city of Nineveh and proclaim conversion. This figure helps us to understand
that the Word of God is not condition by the goodness or braveness and holiness
of man: it can come out even from someone who lacks mercy. The Holy Spirit can
use also him. The last of the prophets was John the Baptist, who showed the
presence of Jesus as the Lamb of God and as the Spouse, that is the manifestation
of the Father to the people and to all peoples. After John the meaning of prophet
changed. Jesus is now present and there is no need that his coming be prophesied.
Now, a prophet is everyone who lives his word, who helps others to remember
his risen presence in the life of the Church. Prophetic people are all the Church,
who by her life in the Holy Spirit continues to announce the love of the Father
and lives the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. We underline this when we profess
our faith with regards to the Church. But now we say:
"He has spoken through the prophets, highlighting all that has been said
by the prophets of the Old Covenant.
"My thoughts are not your thoughts". This is what God says. He sees
us from within and knows that our thoughts are not in line with his thoughts
at all. His point of departure and arrival is Love through that love costs.
We, on the other hand, at the beginning and at the end, we show our selfishness.
This is sort off born spontaneously and we even try to call it love, while it
is only for pleasure sake. Listening to what God has to say, should helps to
desire that our thoughts be in line with his. How? Its easy: it's enough to
listen to Jesus. He spent a lot of time to teach his disciples and the crowds,
teaching the thought of God! The parables of the Kingdom of God are very nice
and significant: through them Jesus puts us into the thoughts of God, helps
us to enjoy them and accept them with conviction.
Today's parable is rich and wants to helps us see new aspects of the love of
the Father, aspects that on our own we can never come to develop. A landowner
who went out to hire laborers for his vineyard. Those listening to Jesus understand
that when he is speaking of a vineyard, he is speaking of the people of God.
The laborers for the vineyard are therefore those who are to work for the good
of the people.
The landowner goes out to hire laborers every three hours to see whether there
is anyone available. His vineyard must have been really big, if he needed so
many laborers. He gives himself so much to the vineyard, but at the same he
wants to be helped by others. He doesn't want to see unemployed persons, wasting
their time in laziness. In that vineyard there is a place for all. What do you
understand? I understand that God and men are to have the same thought, working
hard together. Those who do not work in the vineyard of God are wasting their
time in laziness.
Another aspect that helps us see the difference between our way of thinking
and that of God lies in the reward. We think that one is to be rewarded on the
base of what one does. God has other criterions. He knows that those who work
for him, give him their lives, and therefore is worthy of having their lives
sustained. This cannot be divided and neither gets an increase. The reward God
gives is his love, a love made flesh in Jesus, salvation given by the savior.
He cannot make less salvation, nor double his love. We shall all receive the
same amount, and be happy that all, even those who have worked only the last
hours of the day, are saved and full of the joy of being loved by the Father
through Jesus his son! St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, speaks of
this great love. The apostle would have given his life so that all receive the
reward he will receive: he worked all his life and suffered persecutions, great
trials, and hopes that we, though weak and not so much committed in the Kingdom
of God, receive his same salvation and joy. How beautiful are the thoughts of
God and how marvelous are his ways!