You have ONE job!

As I prepared for today's Mass by reading the Gospel for today, I researched a couple of reliable meditation sites to “jump start” my own meditation. In case you're not Catholic or you weren't listening at Mass this morning the Gospel was about a wealthy landowner who at the end of the day pays everyone the same daily wage, even though some only spent an hour laboring. (Mt 20: 1-16a)

Most of the meditations I researched rightly focused on God's mercy and generosity right up to the time of our deaths, while a couple of others focused on God's infinite wisdom and how His ways are not our ways, as it said in the first reading.

Jesus says the landowner went out in the morning and hired some workers. Then he went out again 3 hours later, then 3 more hours, then 3 more. And each time there were more hands waiting to be hired. What He doesn't say is why the landowner didn't hire them all in the first place. I got to wondering why there would be more to hire each time he went out to the marketplace. Was it because they slept late? Did they not have the proper “skill set?” Were they attending other “interviews” when this landowner came to hire? Worst of all, were they just lazy and not looking for work after all, but “putting in an appearance” to avoid embarrassment? In my meditation, I realized that none of these questions mattered.

What mattered is that the landowner felt so passionate about each and every worker's well-being that he constantly sought out more and more so none would be left with his daily wage. And he wasn't judgemental as to the reason why the man hadn't been hired until the last hour of the day. He was happy that the laborer finally did show up, and could share in the landowner's generosity.

I realize that I am sometimes each of the laborers talked about in this parable. There are days that I am very ardent in my prayer life, evangelical endeavors, and works of mercy then—more often than not—I am lazy in those efforts. It is on those days especially that Jesus comes to me sometimes several times in one day in my thoughts and in my interactions with others to remind me that it's never too late to agree to work in His vineyard and receive the “usual daily wage”, even though others have been more diligent than I have been.

And how do we “work” in God's vineyard? As the popular saying goes “you have ONE job”. That job is to LOVE. Jesus lets us know in several places in the gospels exactly what that means. He reminds his Apostles in one of the gospels and affirms Nicodemus in another that the highest Law (or the “labor of the kingdom”) is 'to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And the second is like it: to love our neighbor and even our enemies as we want to be loved.'. And, just like farmwork in a vineyard, this job is not easy. It will weary our bones, test our patience and yes—at times even cause us seemingly impossible suffering and heartbreak. But at the end of our days no matter when we started and if we have done our one job right, a loving God will send His Son to welcome us and pay us our “usual daily wage” of everlasting joy in the presence of our creator.

I am both weed and wheat

The Gospel during mass today was the parable of the wheat and weeds. It brought back a memory of a day over 50 years ago when I was working with my dad in our vegetable garden behind our house.  I didn’t realize until much later in my life just how much of a brilliantly simple man my dad was!  

I was about 11 or 12 years old and as I said we were out in the back yard working in the garden. He wanted me to help pull the weeds. There were some pretty flowers that he was pulling out and cursing at them because they were weeds.  I asked him, “Isn’t this the same flower that you grow in the front flower beds?  They’re pretty, and Mom loves them.  Why are you pulling them out of the garden?”  He replied, “If it isn’t what we planted, no matter how beautiful it is, it’s a weed, because it can take over the whole garden and the vegetables won’t grow or get as big as we want them to, so it doesn’t belong here.”  

Sin is like that. It can be quite beautiful and seductive, but it is never what God intended to be in His garden.

In parables throughout the gospels, Jesus tells us of many ways that we have to choose between living joyfully with God forever and being forever separated from Him, in great pain over our loss.

The special spin that Jesus puts on this question of our choice is that we have a whole lifetime to make it in. God provides us with all that we need to choose Him and to make that choice concrete in our life rather than just a vague wish or orientation, and we must make that one central choice of our life in terms of the small daily choices that inch us closer to God or away from Him.

While the "harvesters" in today’s parable are able to tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat, we must ordinarily remain in some uncertainly about whether we truly have chosen God enough, whether we have loved Him enough. Any certainty about whether we are "saved" or not can be a form of self-delusion and lead to pride, laziness, and a fatal assumption that we are "good enough." That sort of thing can be deadly in our human relationships, and it is no different in our relationship with God.

I simply do not know whether I am weed or wheat while I am alive, and the fact is that I am both --- but which is the dominant side of who I am? While I am responsible for the choice, it is up to God to decide what I have actually chosen. And that is where the virtue of hope comes in.

The kingdom of heaven starts small, as small as the smallest seed you can see. A still, quiet voice in the human heart, speaking and reminding us that God is always present. Sometimes there will be no sign of it on the outside. But within, there is the yearning, the striving for heaven here and now.

But no matter how small it starts, with gardening and attendance, paying attention to God and what is important, with the slightest care, the smallest amount of devotion, it can grow by leaps and bounds -- a seedling, a shrub, a bush, a tree. And when it has grown, when we've allowed it to take root, it has another supernatural property -- it summons, from every corner of the earth and sky, those who would join. People can see the blessing of it; people can feel it’s comforting presence. And they are drawn to it. They are drawn to the cool shade of it on a hot summer day.

When we allow grace to work, we allow the Kingdom of Heaven to take root. And this kingdom is not for us to hoard and enjoy alone. It has as its chief characteristic the need to be shared, the desire to grow to include everyone.

When you open yourself up to God, don’t be surprised that others see it in you and start to want to be near you. Do not underestimate the ability God has given you to change your part of the world into a corner of heaven.