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Homily 9-18-2011

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus parables often shocked his audience, and this one still gets under our skin today in the same way. Because we tend to focus on the injustice of no hourly wage for the stewards, this often makes it impossible for us to accept, or even sometimes see, the message that Our Lord wishes to give us in the parable. Here the message is this: Gods love is for our benefit, our flourishing; and that Love is generous and pursuing; and that Love has no favorites. Something that helps us to understand the parable is that these laborers are day laborers, people who do not have a stable job but have to rely day by day on these kind of little tasks to provide for their own sustenance and needs. These are the unemployed who will work for food, as we often see today people holding signs to such effect. They rejoice to have this man come and offer them work. It is important to notice that there are no other characters in the scene. If God is the employer and we are the day-laborers, then within the parable Christ is trying to show us that we are all in the same position: we all have a serious lack before God: we need His Grace, his Love, his Mercy and Forgiveness for our sins. It shows us that God is the only one who is really able to employ us: nothing else satisfies there is no other meaningful work, no other meaningful way of spending our life. The Lord seeks us out time and time again, finds us, calls us to serve Him, and then generously bestows on us these things we need and even greater gifts besides. And in the day that represents our whole lives, some are called later than others, but still receive the same generous portion. For those who work from the beginning of the day, their joy is found in having a meaning and purpose for their lives. Their life is not in limbo, waiting, searching, lost. Those already serving can say at any moment, I know who my Master is and I know the great reward he will give me for my labors. And this gets at why it is wrong for us to be shocked into focusing on any injustice in the parable: we are forgetting what the reward is. The reward God offers us is heaven: eternal life, perfect happiness, freedom from pain and suffering. What more is there? What else can we want?! And this is where stewardship and sacrificial giving comes in. As a parish, we have made that to serve the One and Only Master: we have renewed our commitment to being stewards of our baptismal promises during Lent; we renewed our stewardship to humble service during the past Easter Season for this year, and now it is time to renew our commitment to sacrificial giving. The parish already does this, increasing our 7% commitment to 8% this year (5 to Adalbert, 3 to poor), building ourselves slowly toward the goal of a biblical tithe, 10%. Father Bill is asking all of us, myself included, to pray for guidance by the Holy Spirit as we discern our sacrificial gift for this year. Please include a portion of that gift to the Bishops Annual Appeal, which we will begin next week with the video explaining the needs of our Diocese. At that time you will also receive a financial report of the parish that shows how we accomplish our stewardship that frees us from doing fundraisers. For now, please listen to Peg Bridig share her story of serving the Lord in his vineyard by her sacrificial giving.

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