25rd Sunday Ordinary Time - September 24th, 2023 (Click Here for Readings)

The Israelites had little hope in restoring their identity and prosperity as a nation after returning to their destroyed homeland from Babylonian captivity. But renewed beginnings were on the horizon for them if they began to realize that the Lord’s forgiveness, mercy and graces awaited them, sinners and righteous alike. They needed to believe that the Lord’s ways and thoughts were far above and beyond their hopeless mindsets.  

And for us as well, God has great blessings in store when we forsake our sin-filled ways and thoughts and allow him to enter our lives in his way, and not allow our ways to interfere.

No Secrets

God wants us to know him. He’s not keeping his thoughts and ways secret. The more we seek him through all his whispers and signs, clear or subtle, the better we’ll get to know, accept and love his thoughts and ways for us.

But we must seek him as he is, not as we want him to be for us. In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he knew that the time of his death was up to God’s thoughts and ways, but he still had his own thoughts about what he’d prefer; to keep serving his brothers and sisters in love for Christ, or to be taken up to him now for eternity.

The difference between God’s thoughts and our thoughts may not always be about our sinfulness or selfishness, but in the manner that we choose to “conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel,” as St. Paul says.

Are We Really Ready?

Though we may be passionate about our ministries and in serving others, could we ever find ourselves in a similar quandary as Paul? Would we want to be taken up to Christ for eternity right now or serve others through Christ on this earth a while longer? Though we may be doing God’s work right now with great success, do we feel entitled to stay a while? God often takes his servants at their most productive times. His ways are not always our ways.

No Place for Cynics

Today’s Gospel bluntly points this out and should fly in the face of anyone opposed to our modern-day culture of entitlement in the workplace. The vineyard workers had their own definition of what constituted payment, and it was not in sync with the vineyard owner’s “thoughts and ways.”

Was the owner purposely sending the workers a message by creating an entitlement culture and disconnecting pay from performance? Did the workers who showed up late in the day know ahead of time that they’d get a full day’s wages anyway, or were there sound reasons they couldn’t arrive for work on time?

And what about the obscene incomes of celebrities, professional athletes and corporate CEOs? Is it difficult to accept this as God’s thoughts and ways? Let us find satisfaction in Jesus' words . . .

Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. (Luke 6:25) 


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