The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, August 22, 2001
The Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Complete story: http://www.christdesert.org/public_texts/martyrology/
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Judges 9:6-15
Psalm 21:2-7
Matthew 20:1-16a
Full text: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
A Reflection on Today's Scripture:
Today's Gospel is about the reign of God being like the generous
landowner who hired laborers late in the day to work in his vineyard
and then paid them as much as those who were hired at the beginning
of the day.
The parable is interesting and was extensively discussed in an
excellent audiotape series on the Gospels produced by The Spiritual
Renewal Center (www.aiusa.com/src/). In it Jim Krisher, the
presenter, provided his listeners with serious food for thought. He
asked, "Which of the laborers would you have preferred to be: the one
hired at the beginning of the day or one of those hired later in the
day?
Human nature being what it is, seems to want the most for the least
effort. It is expected that many would opt to be a "later hire" --
especially because the wage paid was the same. Many might be troubled
by the seeming lack of fairness; namely people should be paid only
what they have earned.
Jim Krisher's discussion of this gospel provided us with an entirely
different perspective; namely, how blessed are those who from the
beginning have the privilege of laboring in the vineyard of the Lord,
of knowing God and having Him as our friend and guide.
Let us then not begrudge any who are rewarded by our beneficent God;
for in truth, we all are undeserving of God's manifold generosity.
Praise Him who doesn't count the times we weren't in His service, but
instead prefers to focus on our contriteness, humility, dependency
and whole-hearted gratitude for His merciful love.
- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds
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