Reflection on Matthew 20:1-16

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

In today’s Gospel, Jesus narrates the parable of the landowner who hires different people at different times of the day and when it is time to pay them, he pays everyone the same amount. Now, the workers in the story represent us, you and me, and the landowner God. From our human way of reasoning and calculating, there is plenty of injustice, plenty of unexplainable and inexplicable inequality and plenty of upsetting unfairness with the equal pay. In our human way of thinking, those who worked more should be paid more and those who worked less should receive less pay. And there is nothing wrong to think this way. However, let’s remember that God is that Being who knows everything about everything. He is omniscient, that is an all-knowing God. God is matchlessly and incomparably wise. Our knowledge of reality, our knowledge of anything in both depth and breadth when compared to that of God is extremely and laughably tiny, diminutive, nanoscopic, microscopic, infinitesimal, and as young people say informally, teeny-teeny. As such, our knowledge and description of what constitute injustice and unfairness is always going to be imperfect and limited. Only God is wholly and completely wise. 

Sisters and brothers, when it comes to who has made heaven and who will make heaven, only God truly knows. Through a rigorous process of canonization, the Church can tell us a fraction of people who are in heaven, but it has never and will never declare that someone is in hell. Even the worst of all, even figures like Emperor Nero, Adolfos Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, and other terrible human beings who deeply hurt people cannot be said to be in hell. Why? Because none of us knows what happened in the final moment of their lives. Remember the story of the two thieves crucified along with Jesus— one was promised, “Tonight you will be with me in paradise” by Jesus. The bottomline is this: God is inconceivably merciful. You are here because of mercy. I am here because of mercy. We are saved because of mercy. We live, move and have our being because of mercy. Jesus came to save us because of mercy. We are blessed because of mercy. We are delivered because of mercy. We are pardoned and forgiven because of mercy. We are restored and graced because of mercy. We are loved because of mercy. We are protected because of mercy. Whatever we are and whatever we have is due to mercy. God’s mercy! 

So, if you are one of those who will read today’s Gospel and wonder how it could be fair that all those who lived godly and devoutly all their lives and those who repented or converted at the end of their lives or on their death beds could receive the same reward, remember that our ways are not God’s ways. Rather than protest, let’s humble ourselves and allow God to distribute his graces as he deems fit. Grace is unmerited gifts. It has nothing to do with what anyone has done but with what God has done and what God is doing. This Gospel should gladden our hearts and give us hope. Not resentment. Rather than protest over God’s ocean of mercy, rejoice and be hopeful. I am deeply glad that this is the God I serve.