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SPIRITUALITY

September 19 , 2017 | The Valley Catholic

By Father Brendan McGuire

Pastor of Holy Spirit Parish , San Jose , and Vicar General for special projects , Diocese of San Jose . Email him at bmcguire @ dsj . org .

God ’ s Generosity Sunday , September 24

The Gospel of the different laborers receiving the same wage can be difficult to hear . On one level , we understand what the Lord is saying ; on another level , inside of us there is something that says , “ That ’ s just not fair .” The key to hearing this Gospel is actually found in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah . “ God ’ s ways are above our ways .” If we first come with a sense of humility , then we can come to a better understanding of what it means .

When I was a child my father always said , “ Never judge another man until you walk in his shoes for a day .” It is helpful to do that every now and then . Imagine that we are the person who is hired last . We are the one who was still out in the marketplace at 5 o ’ clock .

Put aside all the immigration issues and just imagine the raw human experience of what Jesus is trying to say . Imagine we are that day worker and the only money we get is for each day of labor . When the landowners come by and they do not pick us , we see the clock ticking away and we see our opportunity to earn money slowly slip through our hands . We know that our family is at home , is waiting for the money ; waiting for the food that we will bring home because of that money . We are feeling yet again today my family has no food . Just experience the rawness of that hopelessness that disappointing , sinking feeling . Then a landlord says , “ Go back into the vineyard for the last hour .” And we say to ourselves , “ One hour is better than nothing .” We run out into the vineyard and we work one hour , delighted that at least we will have something for the day .

To our shock , we get a full day ’ s wage ! In some ways , we are confused ; we are thinking , “ Oh you made a mistake ! I only worked for one hour .” But instead we take the whole wage feeling completely unworthy . It is very obvious that we did not earn it because we only worked one hour . But we take it because we know our family needs the food .

That is the perspective Christ is trying to get us to feel . This Gospel is not just about social justice or labor . It is about what “ The kingdom of heaven is like ...” Eternal life is a generous gift from God . We do not earn our way into the kingdom . No matter how hard we think we have worked in this life . Whether we have done a full day of labor or a half day of labor . Because we are all sinners !

We all need the Lord to be that generous because he says , “ Come with me into eternal life .” This is about God ’ s generosity to all . May we celebrate that God forgives everyone even in the last moment ; the last hour of their lives .

$ 20 Bill Counterfeit Sunday , October 1

If you discovered that one of the $ 20 bills in your wallet or purse was a counterfeit , what would you do ? Would you take it down to the bank and report it ? Or would you try to see if you could pass it off to the next individual ? Let ’ s face it , it was not your fault . Somebody somewhere gave you a $ 20 counterfeit bill ! Are you going to say , “ I ’ m not really sure and then pass it along ?” Or maybe you will go to an institution like Macy ’ s and say , “ They can afford $ 20 . It won ’ t make any difference to them .” 1

Would your attitude change if it was a $ 100 bill ? Now that is a larger amount of money , what would you do ? It is a typical personal ethics question for us . We would all agree on what is the right thing to do . The right thing to do , whether it be a $ 20 or a $ 100 bill , is to go down to the bank and say , “ I think this is a counterfeit , can you tell ?” They will know right away .

We all agree that is the right thing to do . The problem is that it takes time , energy and commitment to do . Is it worth it for $ 20 ? Is it worth it for $ 100 ? The question is would we just turn a blind eye and say , “ They will never know ” and pass it on !

The challenge of being a Christian is not in knowing the right thing to do . For the most part , we know the right thing to do in any given situation . There are times when it is complex but for the most part we know the right thing to do . Yet , we so easily give ourselves excuses to let ourselves off the hook and we choose not to do the right thing or we choose to do nothing . It is hard work to do the right thing for the right reasons .

In today ’ s Gospel , we hear the story of the two sons . We tend to be disappointed in the sons , but the reality is that they remind us of ourselves . The Lord reminds us the one who does the will of God is the true follower !

We know what we need to do , let ’ s do it . There is at least one person who we need to forgive and we have not yet forgiven . There is probably one person that we know we need to reach out to and we do not need me to tell us , but we have not done it .

May we do everything we can this week to be living examples of faith ; to be kind , gentle , loving and forgiving ; to bear witness to the Gospel ; to bear witness to the cross ; to be Christ to others ; to be the one who does the right thing ! In every way , may we do the right thing .

( Endnotes ) 1 Adapted from “ Connections ” ( Mediaworks , Londonderry , NH : September , 2014 )

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