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September 24, 2023REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL READING
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
SEPTEMBER 24, 2023
Dear Parishioners,
The profound message of the 25th Sunday Gospel (Mt 20: 1-16a) is the Father’s will for universal salvation for humanity. Today’s Gospel overturns the view of selfish, jealous, and calculating people. We should not compare or be jealous of our brothers and sisters because God gives each person talents and assets according to each person’s ability. Today’s Gospel invites us to think about St. Paul’s words to the Galatians: “Each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast with regard to himself alone, and not with regard to someone else” (Galatians 6:4). Therefore, the Word of God asks people to change their thoughts, ways of doing, and behavior towards God and others. Our relationship with God is a supernatural relationship in which salvation comes from God’s grace and love. God wants us to treat each other as God treats us. God offers salvation to everyone, as long as people know how to open their hearts to receive God’s salvation.
If Jesus wanted to offer a lesson on social justice, he would have failed because his parable in today’s Gospel does not respect the most elementary laws of equality. “Jesus doesn’t understand finances or economics . . . If Jesus were named the administrator of a community or the director of a business, the institution would surely fail and go bankrupt. How can anyone pay someone who began to working at 5:00 P.M the very same wage paid to the person who has been working since early morning? Is this merely an oversight? Is Jesus’ accounting wrong? No! He does it on purpose, as he explains, “Can I not do what I want with what is mine? Or are you jealous because I am generous?” (Mt 20: 15) (Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, The Testimony of Hope, 18). In his parable, Jesus reveals a strange logic of his thoughts. Like the landowner in the parable, God behaves differently from humans. The heart of God has its reasons that human reason does not understand.
Yours in Christ, Lam Vo
