Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
How often have you cried out, “Its not fair!” I probably say this at least once day. Sometimes I am right on and sometimes I am not. When we experience an injustice in society, we seek justice from the justice system. It is the right thing to do. As Christians too, we believe that justice is a divine quality and that God is a just God. However, in the religious realm, when we have done something wrong and come before God, we don’t seek God’s justice, but rather, God’s mercy. Here, then, is the dichotomy - we know God to be just, but we expect to be treated with mercy. As the Psalmist says, “If you O Lord, should mark our guilt, who would survive? (Ps 103:3). If God treated us sinners in the same way that the justice system treats offenders, what would the confessional look like? In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is known to be both just and merciful. Where do justice and mercy meet? The parable of the generous vineyard owner in today’s gospel reading is an answer to this question. Just to recall, in the parable, a vineyard owner invites laborers to work in his vineyard at various time during the day but pays them all the same wage. This causes the ones who came first to grumble. This also causes Jesus to say, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Mt 20:15).
In my three points, I would like to address the issue of God’s justice, God’s mercy, and God’s generosity.
- The Last will be First. To understand the connection between justice and mercy, we must begin with the moral of the parable that Jesus proposes at the end of the parable. He says, “Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” What is really going on over here? Jesus was accused of associating with disreputable people - an accusation Jesus never denied. He himself said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt 9:13). The so called ‘religious people’ in Jesus’ time thought like many of us do - God and heaven are for the righteous. Jesus turned this thinking upside down. In the parable, by giving equal wages to those who came at the end, the vineyard owner was not denying the righteous their due. Indeed, he was being just. However, by giving the same wage to those who came later, he was being merciful. Many years later when Matthew wrote his gospel, this parable also served to normalize the Jewish-Christian and Gentile-Christian relationship. Through the parable, Jesus was giving a very simple lesson - God is accessible to the righteous and the sinner, the Jews and Gentiles. However, the righteous people began to take offense at Jesus for showing mercy toward those who, in their thinking, did not deserve it. But as Isaiah says in today’s first reading, God does not think like us. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” (Is 55:8-9). What does this mean for us? It means that we religious people should avoid the temptation that the Pharisees and scribes fell into - the temptation to control how God acts in the world? Today’s readings teach us not to play God. Unlike us, God is both just and merciful. Those we consider unworthy also have a chance at eternity.
- When Justice and Mercy Meet. Let me return to the original question - In Christianity, where do justice and mercy meet? We find the answer at the end of the parable of the generous vineyard owner. When the people who came first to the vineyard grumbled against the owner because the people who came last received the same wages as them, he said, “Are you envious that I am generous?” The answer, then, lies in the word, “generosity.” Those who came early to the vineyard got their just reward, whereas those who came late to the vineyard experienced God’s mercy. Both justice and mercy flow from God’s generosity. Both the righteous and the sinners, the first and the last, can expect eternal reward because of God’s generosity. Here, then, is the most important point being made by the parable – that salvation is not something we earn. Salvation and eternity are God’s generous gifts to us all. Salvation is not something we accomplish. Salvation is accomplished because God is a generous God, in whom justice and mercy meet in a perfect divine balance. Try it this week – every person, every issue, every situation – view them with Christ’s generous, just, and merciful heart!
- “Conduct Yourselves in a Way Worthy of the Gospel of Christ.” In light of God’s the generosity, the justice, and the mercy of God, Paul’s exhortation to, “conduct yourself in a way worth of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” is truly significant. We who are familiar with the generosity of God and we who constantly seek out God’s mercy must now conduct ourselves “in a way worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” If we indeed conducted ourselves in a way worthy of the gospel; if we conducted ourselves with the kind of generosity, justice, and mercy that Jesus highlights in the parable, it has implications for our church and world. The church’s mission is to mirror the mission of Jesus Christ. This is what Pope Francis was referring to when he said towards the beginning of his pontificate that the “church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints!” These days we are inclined to look at issues in our society through ideological and partisan lenses. Whether it is life and death issues, racism, immigration, the economy, gun-violence, the environment, the pandemic, or even the church, we are a people tearing each other apart. However, if we “conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ;” if we evaluated these very issues through the eyes of the gospel of Jesus Christ; if we looked at people associated with these issues from the perspective of God’s generosity, justice and mercy, then I believe that we would be having a very different conversation. A church and society based on the generosity, justice and mercy of God would look very different than the structures, the institutions and the nations we have built for ourselves today.
Every Eucharist is an experience of the justice and mercy of God. When we come for Mass, we stand before God as a community of sinners. That is why we begin every mass by pleading, “Lord, Have Mercy.” God could condemn us. Rather, God has mercy on us. The Christian community leaves every Eucharist as a reconciled community, having experienced the generosity and the just mercy of God. As you leave this church today, be sure to proclaim that God is just. But in your actions, let the mercy of God become viral.
- Fr Satish Joseph