This week’s Gospel story (Matthew 20:1-16) is about the landowner who hired workers and agreed to pay them a whole day’s wage.  Subsequently the landowner hired more workers at various times during the day Then, at the end of the day, he paid those who worked only one hour the full amount he had agreed to pay those who worked the full day. Seeing this, the workers hired at dawn expected the owner would give them more than the promised full day’s wage, but he did not. Feeling slighted, they grumbled at the landowner who replies, “My friend, I am not cheating you. . . . Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?”  

In the hired-at-dawn workers we see a judging of the actions of the landowner according to an individualistic mindset that ranks the “rightness” of an action according to its benefit to oneself.  Lots of our judgments are motivated by this thinking.  We feel cheated if someone gets served a better looking meal plate than the one the waiter places in front of us, if someone gets control of the family TV remote before us, if someone in front of us buys the last of an item we came to the store to buy. Small and insignificant situations, but the mindsets we let rule our thinking in these insignificant moments  can trap us in self-centeredness and hostility toward others.

In the 2013  Exhortation the Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis warns:  this type of individualism “divides human beings, setting them against one another as they pursue their own well-being.”§99  As you listen to this Gospel story today, is its message of not envying but rejoicing in the good fortune of another bringing you more joy than it did the last time you heard it?  If it does, rejoice!  If it doesn’t and you truly want to be a Christian, ask the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to help you allow yourself to turn away from putting yourself first so that you can see others from the perspective of God’s rejoicing in the good fortune of all.  Then we will be professing and radiating the Joy of the Gospel.

Below are more quotations from Pope Francis’ Exhortation, the Joy of the Gospel.

Sister Loretta

QUOTATIONS FROM THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL

• • 99. Our world is being torn apart by wars and violence, and wounded by a widespread individualism which divides human beings, setting them against one another as they pursue their own well-being. In various countries, conflicts and old divisions from the past are re-emerging. I especially ask Christians in communities throughout the world to offer a radiant and attractive witness of fraternal communion.

• • 99. Let everyone admire how you care for one another, and how you encourage and accompany one another: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). This was Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to the Father: “That they may all be one… in us… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). Beware of the temptation of jealousy! We are all in the same boat and headed to the same port! Let us ask for the grace to rejoice in the gifts of each, which belong to all.

• • 97. “Their hearts are open only to the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness. This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good.”

• • 101. ‘Let us ask the Lord to help us understand the law of love. How good it is to have this law! How much good it does us to love one another, in spite of everything. Yes, in spite of everything! Saint Paul’s exhortation is directed to each of us:

• • • “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). And again: “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right” (Gal 6:9). We all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps at this very moment we are angry with someone. At least let us say to the Lord: “Lord, I am angry with this person, with that person. I pray to you for him and for her”. To pray for a person with whom I am irritated is a beautiful step forward in love, and an act of evangelization. Let us do  it today! Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the ideal of fraternal love!