25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)

1st Reading               Isaiah 55: 6-9

Psalm                          145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18 (R. 18a)

R:// "The Lord is near to all who call upon him"

2nd Reading             Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a

Gospel                        Matthew 20: 1-16

CHOOSE TRUST OVER CONTRACT

Friends, Peace and Goodness! Today is the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) and the 3rd Sunday of the month. Our first reading is from Isaiah 55:6-9 and the Gospel is from Matthew 20:1-16. We shall settle on a detail in the first reading and two from the Gospel. 

The first reading, from Isaiah 55: 6-9, falls within the second division, called "Deutero-Isaiah", at least by the popular scholarly division of the book of the prophet Isaiah. These are people in exile in Babylon being addressed. They had stopped expecting anything good to happen to them in Babylon. Today's text is built to encourage such people. 

The author says "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts. Let him turn back to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon". There are two things we should pick from this single detail. We should be interested in what ABUNDANT PARDON is and how it should count in giving hope and encouragement. The translated Hebrew expression is yarbeh lislo'ach (יַרְבֶּה לִסְלוֹחַ). This literally means "He will multiply to forgive". The verb behind multiplying is Ravah (רָבָה) and it is interesting to know that it is the same word God speaks over Abraham when he promises to make his descendants as many as the stars. What it means is that, for a people discouraged by everything, including a loss of national identity because they are in exile and they are being reduced to nothing, even in terms of population, God's promise to them is likened to the promise of abundance he made to Abraham. National identity will not be lost. The word belongs to the vocabulary of fertility, to harvest, abundance, and to nations increasing. The pardon of God is described the way a family multiples or a field yields more than was sown. Forgiveness is also abundant production. 

Secondly, the wicked man is told to forsake two things. He is invited to abandon his WAY and his THOUGHTS. Why are these important? His WAY is the visible track of his conduct. This is what is seen by all. His THOUGHTS are the invisible motions of the mind. There is a two-way restoration and disposition to receive the blessing of abundance. The restoration is being done in a manner that will leave nothing in the wicked man standing that will hinder due progress. The seen and unseen parts have to be worked on to merit the pardon of God.

We turn now to the Gospel passage from Matthew 20:1-16. This is a very famous parable about a landowner who goes out to hire workers at different times of the day. At the time of payment for work done, there was grumbling. 

The first point of interest is the agreement with the first workers. The expression is key. The landowner "agreed with them". The verb used is "symphōneō", and this means to "sound together, to come into agreement the way instruments come into tune". In fact, it is this word that gives us the word symphony. There is an agreed arrangement between the two parties. What it suggests also is that the workers know that agreement and their relationship with the landowner is based on that agreement. Every group hired after them receives no such contract. They are sent out with a single word, DIKAION (δίκαιον), whatever is right, with no wage named and no bargain struck, nothing to hold on to but the character of the man who sent them. 

The point is that the first workers enter the vineyard already in tune with the landowner but the later workers enter with nothing but trust that the landowner's idea of right will be enough. It is important to notice which of the two postures the parable eventually praises. It is the posture of trust. The parable communicates that even a carefully planned harmony and agreement with an expected end can turn out flat. 

The second detail is the number of times and the various times the landowner went out in search of workers. He went out FIVE times, at dawn, third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and eleventh hour. Five is the number of Grace. It is the gift of God. It is the reason why Jesus multiplied five loaves for 5,000. It is an indication of what God does for us. The parable, therefore, I suggest, gives us gracious moments.

Within the times of calling, the landowner went out, counted by daylight, at the THIRD, SIXTH and NINTH hours. We should stop here to underline that, although they are times on a clock of a Jew, there is a religious dimension to them. These are fixed hours at which a devout household paused to pray. In fact, even the earliest Christians in Jerusalem gathered at the Temple at the ninth hour and went up to pray also at noon. It looks like the man is keeping pace with the rhythm of prayer itself, arriving anew at every hour a faithful household would already be pausing to look up in prayer, so that even the man found at five in the evening, with almost no daylight left to offer, is found at an hour someone somewhere was still on their knees.

I think we should end here and dwell on these details to help our reflections and deliberations on this 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A).

Pax et Bonum