Fr. Robert J Carr is the editor of this blog

As we look at the parable today, may I ask you to consider which character are you. First off, let us remember all the characters: There is the landowner, the workers hired first, second, third and last and one more character: The foreman. He is the one who has no speaking part but must hand out the pay. If we were casting for a movie, he would be the extra.

We make a mistake if we relate this parable through labor relations. If we see the landowner as paying his workers depending on the hours they worked. We need to see it within the context of the parable. When we do that we see beyond labor relations to a far different perspective.

The sinking boat.

The ship hit an iceberg and it is beginning to sink, you are in the last lifeboat and there is still room, but the people on deck are the last to arrive. If you let them in, then they receive the same benefit that you did when you followed all the rules. You got your life preserver, you gathered your family, you even made sure on another lifeboat your wife and childen went before you or if you are a woman or child, you left your husband to find a later boat because that was the rule. Suddenly as the lifeboat is being lowered from the sinking boat a man, his wife and their children are on deck looking to sit in your boat which is filled with the last passenger until they arrived. They did not follow the rules they belonged taking a previous boat, now they want in your boat. Will you say no because they did not listen until now. Maybe if the conditions were different, if they could catch another boat tomorrow because this one was not sinking. However, they do not have that choice. You do. Do you let them into the boat or let them perish on the sinking ship. The answer is probably obvious.

This is the method of the parable, it is not about labor relations it is about God’s generosity to his people in a world that will spin out of control. Will you let them into your world. Remember Jesus knows what his listeners do not, Judah will be wiped off the map in about 40 years and never to exist again until 1946. That ship we call Judah is well on its way to striking an ice berg and will sink. The only hope is the lifeboat we call Jesus. Indeed, in the actual story of the destruction of the Jerusalem, the people ran into the temple seeking refuge and the Romans caused the walls to fall in on top of them.

Understand this story as a man trying to bring salvation to those who have none. The first hired represent those who first accepted his salvation and last represent the last. It is not about how we should pay our workers.

Let us ask ourselves which person we identify with, may I ask you to consider the foreman, the character without a speaking part. There he is handing out the money following his master’s orders. Each person who expected a small pittance with which to feed his family now receives many times more than they expected with the exception of the first hires. All receive a full days wages and the foreman just hands it out. He knows that people who were not expecting to feed their family today, now are able. Now let us add another dimension. The last group of people expected one hours wages, why did they say yes. You can blame them for being lazy, but if they were lazy, they would not work for the one hour to receive 1/12 of what the first hires received. They would not even say yes to the invitation to work.

So it is with Jesus’ salvation many come late to receive the gift, they spend their early years laughing at salvation and then suddenly they accept the gift. Do you begrudge them, resentful that they had their good time and now are trying to have it both ways or do you rejoice that they too will be able to rejoice in Heaven. You have no choice one way or another Jesus has accepted them whether  you approve or not. You can choose to obey and rejoice or obey and grumble, but if you choose not to obey you are fired or you are out of the lifeboat. Either way you lose.

However, if you obey and rejoice, you appreciate the mind of God. Because it is salvation that he offers all and he wants all to be saved. You are one who is an agent of that gift. There is another part to this. You and I are called to be agents looking for those who want that gift. We have a duty to seek out the lost and bring them to the Lord, if they want to come. Maybe the lost will not want to come until they realize how lost they really are, hence why the are the last to receive salvation. Is that not the experience of St. Augustine who realized that he loved the Lord too late in his life and would have preferred to have known Him all along?

Let’s go back to the boat parable. Did you decide whether you would allow the family into the boat or just let them drown  when the ship sinks. Now look at those about you.

When I did prison ministry, one of this state’s most notorious criminals, guilty of every crime you can imagine had reached the end of the line. He is now doing a bunch of life sentences, I do believe in a federal prison, but he may be in a state prison. If I were to say his name, every one would recognize him. Some one taught him how to do the rosary in protective custody. Which he did. What do you think about that? What about the people who mock us and attack us. What if they were suddenly to come to see we are right, which we are. How would you respond?

If you were waiting in line for salvation and  you saw them ahead of you receiving the same salvation would you grumble  and complain?

Now let’s get less extreme: what about the people who have yet to understand the need for God. Do you act as foreman or as grumbling worker.

St. John Chrysostom on rejoicing over the blessings of others:

In the kingdom of heaven there is no one who justifies himself or blames others in this way;
perish the thought! That place is pure and free from envy and jealousy. For if the saints when
they are here give their lives for sinners, how much more do they rejoice when they see them
there enjoying rewards and consider their blessings to be their own

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

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