Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Reward Centered Faith

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
we hear of a landowner who goes out to hire workers for his field,
hiring some first thing in the morning and then others at different times during the day.
Then he pays each the same wage.
Why should those who have worked only an hour
be paid the same as those who have slaved in the hot sun all day?
Is the landowner really being unfair?

Perhaps he saw something that the first workers didn’t see.
Perhaps he saw, in his compassion, that their day spent waiting for work to feed their families was a terrible one,
marked by anxiety and a sense of failure.
Or perhaps he knew that they were poorer, more desperate, less gifted.
Maybe he knew they needed a bit more encouragement.

Here’s a second perspective on this mysterious story.
We sinners are very susceptible to a reward-
centered understanding of our relationship to God.
Tit for tat; I do this, then you better do that.
But this is very juvenile.

We’ve been invited to work in the vineyard of the Lord.
That is the greatest privilege imaginable,
to participate in the Lord’s work of saving the world.
Why are we fussing about rewards?
And how liberating this is!
I don’t have to spend my life fussing and spying and worrying and comparing.
I can live.

+++Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire
laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the
usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them,
‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did
likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
he found others standing around, and
said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all
day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has
hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my
vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the
vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them
their pay,
beginning with the last and ending
with the first.’
When those who had started about
five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought
that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled
against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the
usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish
with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first,
and the first will be last.”+++

I think Bishop Barron has missed the entire perspective of this parable. It's obvious to me that Jesus is talking about salvation - not earning rewards. I don't doubt there are "religious" people who balk at the idea that a repentant murderer can be saved by the same faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin as they are. "Didn't we do all these things for God our whole lives?", they will whine. "And yet here's a person who waited until his life was almost spent before he trusted in Christ to save him - and he will be!".

Those workers who didn't show up until the last hour of the workday received the same as those who started in the morning yet, as the vineyard owner pointed out, they all agreed to the payment. Wasn't it the owner's right to do as he wanted?

What the disgruntled workers - and perhaps many of us - fail to comprehend is NONE of us really deserves salvation. We are ALL sinners/unclean, our works are like filthy rags, we all fall short of the glory and perfection of God. We can't earn, nor work, nor merit salvation. It is why God offers it to us by His GRACE - unmerited, unearned, undeserved. It is by grace we are saved through faith and not of ourselves; it is the GIFT of God not of works, lest anyone should boast.

I think what Jesus was trying to teach us by this parable is that we should rejoice whenever anyone comes to genuine saving faith in Christ and not worry so much about what they may have gone through to get there. I know God's word says the angels rejoice over one sinner that comes to repentance. He wants us to rejoice with them!

There is no mediator between God and man other than Jesus Christ. Read Hebrews 10. The Roman Catholic organization is not built on the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. It has made itself indispensable to its adherents in violation of the clear meaning of scripture.

Today's reflection is based on a parable.
There is no "clear meaning of scripture" with a parable.
It's intended to have more than a singular meaning.

Now, spoiler alert here, The "source and summit of the Church for 2,000 years has ALWAYS been the redemptive Sacrifice and Resurrection of Christ.
The dogma of "no OTHER Mediator than Jesus" that your deviating reply refers, also comes from a doctrine of the very same Church org.,
and is not something you happened to stumble on by chance.

You're understanding of these essential origins is lacking.

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