Homily for 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a story told about a guy who was desperately seeking employment. No matter where he went he couldn't find a job until one day he heard there was a job going at the local zoo.
Off he heads, delighted with himself and gets a job. He is given a monkey suit (and that's not a tuxedo by the way) and is told to get into the monkey enclosure and pretend for the crowd.
Anyway for days he happily swings from bar to bar getting cheered on by the crowds who are utterly convinced he is a monkey until one day he falls and twists his ankle.
He starts roaring and shouting, as you would, 'Help! Help!' he cried.
'Shut up' said the lion in the next cage, 'or we'll all lose our jobs.'
None of us like to be duped and made a fool of. If it's a monkey it should be a monkey and if it's a lion it should be a lion. A fair days work should be rewarded with a fair days pay.
So we can really understand the disgruntlement of the labourers who worked all day in the vineyard and got the same wage as the people who started work at the close of day. In our minds there is something terrible unfair here.
But maybe the fault isn't with the image of God in the Gospel and more to do with the diet of images we received as we grew up. We have had less of the God of love and more the God who keeps score. So our motivation for doing good, saying our prayers, going to mass etc can be one of fear or else the clocking up of brownie points in the ledger of life so that at the end, the good will out balance the bad.
The Gospel this morning quashes those sorts of images and our response to them.
God can't be confined to the laws of economics, God does not work in that realm. It is not a case with God that if you do good you will be rewarded more than the person who doesn't.
God is love, and it is there for anyone at anytime we choose to avail of it. And if I do come at the eleventh hour it is still there, because God's love is 24hours, seven days a week.
So why bother serving this God or following the Gospel. What's the motivation?
I think the Gospel this morning is calling for a radical conversion to God. It tells us that the Brownie Point system of serving God is not a workable option because God doesn't work by the laws of economics.
Our Gospel asks for people to love God so much that it's a natural/no questions asked response to love others, be compassionate, forgiving, merciful, respectful, and all those kingdom values that could make this society and world a better place for all.
Christian love is not some soppy nonsense. It challenges us to go beyond ourselves, to go beyond what our society and world see as fair play. It sees fair play as getting what I deserve be it good or bad. Christianity sees fair play as unconditional loving, forgiveness of sin, equal availability of the world's resources for all, loving our enemy, doing good to those who hate us, speaking out for the discriminated against, those who suffer injustice, prejudice, and hatred. Christianity challenges market forces saying people are worth far more than the work they do and have dignity bestowed on them by God at the beginning of creation and that is a fact no matter who or what they are.
Christianity clearly teaches that God's love is for all not for some. So lets remember:
You can't expect a person to see eye to eye with you, when you're looking down on him