Late Laborers

Appreciating when the Lord calls us to work in the vineyard

08/24/2023

Mt 20:1-16 Jesus told his disciples this parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.' So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.' When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.' When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?' Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."

I would like to share with you three practical applications of this beautiful parable of the late laborers and the generous land owner. The first is our experience of labor in the United States today. There is a shortage of laborers; people just don’t want to work here in our country these days. And lots of owners of businesses are looking for workers. But there is a kind of labor shortage, with all kinds of reasons for that I suppose, and I’m not smart enough to speculate on what those might be.

But I have also noticed that whenever there is a new wave of immigrants into our country, they bring a new kind of labor force. And I don’t just mean in terms of numbers – that there are more people to work – but I mean in terms of zeal, energy, an inexhaustible desire to work. And in a sense they give us as a country a shot in the arm, to get off the couch, and we begin to take labor seriously. We see people hungry to work.

But we also have to remember the generosity of the land owner, who kind of pays – in our calculation of things – unequally. And don’t we sometimes feel that way? We who have been here in this country for years and generations, well, here come these “Johnny-come-latelys” and they are getting all the same benefits that we have, who have been here from the beginning.

The Lord has a message for us today, to be generous to those who arrive most recently to work. So, that is one application to our labor market: some have worked longer, others more recently, and there is a healthy generosity that should be shown to everyone who is willing to work.

The second application concerns laborers in the Lord’s vineyard, that is, vocations to the priesthood and religious life. You know, some people discover their vocation to the priesthood or the religious life very early in life. You remember Fr. Greg Luyet. We used to joke with him in the seminary that he knew he was supposed to be a priest from the moment he was conceived in his mother’s womb. When we discover our vocation early in life, we are hired by the land owner at a very young age and spend their own life laboring in the Lord’s vineyard.

But we also have the experience of people who discover a priestly vocation much later in life. Of course we all know Fr. Jack Sidler at Christ the King. He decided to become a priest much later in life. And the land owner is generous, and says, “You too, come, work in my vineyard” no matter what time of day in your life you feel the call.

So we are blessed not only with early vocations but also with so-called delayed vocations, who hear the vineyard owner calling them at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and only work for one hour in the Lord’s vineyard. So that is the second application in terms of religious vocations and when we get into the vineyard and start working, some early, some late.

And the third application is in our own spiritual life, when we start following the Lord. Some of us have discovered the joys of Catholic Christianity very early in life, so beginning with our childhood, and teenage years, college and work, we have always been in love with the Lord. We started hearing his voice, and working for him developing our spiritual life, and never deviating from that path. So he called us very early, and we stayed close to him.

But there are others who take the scenic route in their spirituality, and only take their faith life seriously later, maybe after they have retired from work. I was speaking with one man recently who said that after he retired, he realized that death was not just something theoretical but something that WAS going to happen to HIM. He wanted to start doing things in the church, and getting involved. Now he is involved in Bible studies and helping in different ministries, and just can’t get enough. He was hired at 5 o’clock.

And so maybe in our own lives we see people, or ourselves, some who started following the Lord very early in life because it was obvious and easy. And then other people who have been standing on the sidelines of their spiritual life, not quite seeing how important it is. And then, thanks be to God, the owner in his generosity calls us into the vineyard to work.

Praised be Jesus Christ!