We need to think hard and gratefully about the landowner’s words: ‘Why be envious because I am good?’……. As Christians we are called to imitate the foundational goodness and love shown to us by God in Christ when we did not deserve it.
God is ever with us to strengthen us, to pardon us, and to lift us up again when, through human weakness, we stumble on the road. God is calling us right now, inviting us to work in His vineyard, inviting us to say “Yes” to Him with our words and actions.
“The world and its wonders are not ours to own. Rather they are given to us in trust; we are their tenants. When we forget this basic fact, we invite disaster and degenerate into moral corruption. We must remember that we are servants and God the master.” Bishop Robert Barron
This parable is a reassuring parable. It reminds us that God will not allow his plan to be obstructed. The forces of evil will be bound and destroyed even if the path to achieve this looks messy and painful.
A Christian cannot really say, “It is my time and my money to use how I wish.” A Christian must say, “It is God’s time and God’s money, entrusted to me to be used for myself and for others.
Jesus stressed the direct relationship between love of God and love of neighbour. He explained that the rest of the laws are based on the two. They are like the hinges on which the entire law hung.
The Gospel considers you great for a different reason: you are great if you serve. At the end we are all the same because we all face the same end: death.
“So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.”
“Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”
“When the Son of Man comes in all his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and the nations will be assembled before him.”