＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊     

Judges 9:6-15*

(….) Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim.

There he cried out to them, “Listen to me, lords of Shechem, that God may Listen to you!

The trees once set out to find and anoint a king. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ (….)

The trees said to the fig tree: ‘Come and reign over us.’ (…..)

The trees said to the vine”’Come and reign over us.’(…..)

Then the trees said to the bramble bush: ‘Come, reign over us.’ (…..)

 

Ps 21:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

Lord, in your strength the king is glad.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊   

Matthew 20:1-16

 This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven. A landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.  He agreed to pay the workers a salary of a silver coin for the day, and sent them to his vineyard.

 He went out again at about nine in the morning, and seeing others idle in the square,   he said to them: ‘You, too, go to my vineyard and I will pay you what is just.’ So they went.

The owner went out at midday and again at three in the afternoon,   and he did the same.   Finally he went out at the last working hour – it was the eleventh – and he saw others standing there. So he said to them: ‘Why do you stay idle the whole day?’   They answered: ‘Because no one has hired us.’ The master said: ‘Go and work in my vine­yard.’

 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager: ‘Call the workers and pay them their wage, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’  Those who had come to work at the eleventh hour turned up and were given a denarius each (a silver coin).   

When it was the turn of the first, they thought they would receive more.   But they, too, received a denarius each. So, on receiving it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

 They said: ‘These last hardly worked an hour, yet you have treated them the same as us who have endured the day’s burden and heat.’ The owner said to one of them: ‘Friend, I have not been unjust to you. Did we not agree on a denarius a day?  So take what is yours and go.

I want to give to the last the same as I give to you.   Don’t I have the right to do as I please with my money? Why are you envious when I am kind?’ So will it be: the last will be first, the first will be last.”

 

 Gospel Reflection：

 The kingdom of God operates according to its own internal logic, not necessarily according to the rules that the world knows. For in heaven greatness is not about achievement nor is reward dependent on longevity of work.

The reward is equal for all. But those who are first, like the early workers of the vineyard are also first assured that at the end of their work, they will get their just reward. The later ones are left agonized and fearful, worried as to how they will survive if they are not hired by the owner of the vineyard.

And so, it is not about how long you worked in God's Vineyard. It is having an equal share of love and concern from a loving God who subverts the rule of the world and replaces it with his own rule based on love.