Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
based in large
part on a reflection by Fr. Al Lauer
When
Pope Saint John XXIII was asked,
he
famously replied, “About half.”
Elsewhere
in the gospel, we hear Jesus say,
“The
harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few” (Mt 9:37).
That
can sound pretty surprising to folks
in
these days of soaring unemployment rates.
Besides,
bringing in the harvest
is
generally the most enjoyable part of the job—
better
than plowing or planting, fertilizing or weeding.
Not
to mention the Lord has a reputation for paying pretty well:
a
full day’s wage for barely an hour of work.
You’d
think everybody’d be signing up!
According
to the Pope, only half truly work in the Vatican.
But
how many are willing to work—really
work—
in God’s
Kingdom?
Why
are the laborers so few?
Well—if
you agree to work in the Lord’s vineyard
it
usually starts with a few odd jobs.
Stick
with it awhile, and he then asks you to go full-time.
Before you know it, God wants you to be “on call” 24/7.
In
the end, the Lord seeks to have you be more than his worker:
he’ll
tell you he wants you to be his slave—
with
no pay, no vacation,
setting
aside your own life and will for his.
why the Lord has so many openings
but
gets so few applications.
If
we are willing to work for him,
most
of us only want a part-time position, at best.
In
fact,
I’ve met a few Catholics over the years
I’ve met a few Catholics over the years
(maybe you have, too)
who
give the distinct impression
that
the Lord should feel lucky
he gets them for an hour a week—
and
they’d prefer an even shorter shift
at a time that doesn’t interfere
with
anything else on their schedule.
Most of you remember Fr. Martin Cline.
He’s
got a great t-shirt that reads:
“I
work for the Lord.
The
pay is low…but
the benefits are out of this world!”
Now,
I want to avoid giving the false impression
that
working for the Lord full-time
must
mean becoming a priest or a nun.
Far,
far from it!
Every
one of us was assigned a job in the vineyard
on the
day we were baptized.
But
if the average Catholic has lost the sense
that
their whole life—no matter their specific vocation—
ought
to be given to the Lord and his service,
then
we shouldn’t be too surprised that so few these days
are
willing to leave the pew for the pulpit
or
the choir for the convent.
To
be a slave of Jesus Christ
is
not a punishment or disgrace, but a privilege.
You
see, this sort of slavery
is utterly
devoid of mistreatment and cruelty;
it’s
one, rather, we must willingly embrace.
And
it’s not about working for pay or any other reward;
it’s
simply about doing what’s requested or needed,
what’s
right and our duty—
even
if we don’t understand it 100%.
It’s
the sort of thing we admire when we see parents
become
the slaves of their newborn baby,
or
a husband of his terminally ill wife,
or
adult children of a frail and elderly parent.
To
be the Lord’s slave is not the slavery of forced labor;
it’s
the freely accepted slavery of love.
How
many of us have heeded the call
and
gone to work in the vineyard?
“My
thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor
are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
Thanks
be to God that his work ethic is not like ours!
The
Almighty might have stopped creating before the sixth day
and
never gotten around to making the human race.
Or
Jesus might have stayed in that carpenter’s shop,
knowing
it’d be much less demanding to work with wood
than
to save the world by dying on it—
himself
becoming our slave in order to set us free.
God’s
ways may not be our ways,
but
we can certainly make our ways more like God’s.
Start
with a few odd jobs for the Kingdom.
Before
you know it, you’ll be doing slave labor…
…and
nothing—I promise—this side of heaven
can make you any happier.
can make you any happier.
No comments:
Post a Comment