25th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 24, 2023

Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 24, 2023, Matthew 20:1-16a
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092423.cfm

Do You Get It?

“But mom, that’s not fair!” My mom comes into the kitchen and tells me to clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. But I protest, “I didn’t make that mess.” And she comes back with, “You heard me,” and she walks away.

How about the football player who hits an opposing player, and the referee doesn’t see it? We know who gets the penalty – the fellow who hits back. Life is not fair.

It wasn’t fair for the people in the gospel who got hired at sunrise and got the same pay as those hired just before sunset. Life is not fair. We believe that keeping all the Commandments gives us the right to heaven. We deserve our pay.

But God has a better way, which has nothing to do with our performance. We put the cart before the horse. Isaiah got it, and we must agree, “God’s ways are not our ways” (Isaiah 55:8-9m First Reading.)

There is a step that comes before our performance or keeping the Commandments. It’s all about relationships. In this parable, Jesus challenges us to move from being laborers in his field and become his friends, even his family, who sit at His table (Eucharist) and eat and drink from the Bread that gives us His Life and the Cup and saves us from our ways.

Gospel Challenge:

Then we work in His field and gain not only what we need, heaven or a single fold, but a hundredfold – all the people who find Jesus in whatever we do for them. They get to heaven, too, or at least get hired and start a relationship with the Lord. Do you get it?

Ignite the Fire

Fr. Rick Pilger, I.C.

Pastor

or .