Ordinary Time, 25th Sunday (A) A parable about a landowner with a vineyard should make us think of God, the Garden of Eden, and the people of Israel. If God is the landowner, then who are the workers? That's us.

The story contains several surprises. First, the master keeps welcoming new workers. Other landowners hire their workers right away in the morning. This Master always has room for more people who say, "Yes".

Second, he has a foreman, so why is he the one recruiting? Jesus is among us and he himself is inviting us to come work in his vineyard.

Third, everyone is paid equally. In the end, God only has one gift to give: the gift of himself. Everyone receives Communion with the Trinity as a reward for their Yes.

Finally, let us talk about the attitude of a servant. St. Paul is writing this letter from a jail cell as he awaits his sentence. He will either live of die. But he has no fear because he has given his life to the Lord. He has served the master faithfully.

Our lives do not belong to us. We signed up to work in his vineyard; we have chosen to serve Jesus. So why do we keep trying to be the master, and make our lives work for us? Let us go out into the fields each day as confident servants. No one ever regrets serving Jesus faithfully. Now is the time to say Yes to the Master; now is the time to go work in His vineyard.

(20 Sep 2026)

Going Deeper: The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by so doing save his or her soul; and it is for the human person that the other things on the face of the earth are created, as helps to the pursuit of this end.

It follows from this that the person has to use these things in so far as they help toward this end, and to be free of them in so far as they stand in the way of it.

To attain this, we need to make ourselves indifferent toward all created things, provided the matter is subject to our free choice and there is no prohibition.

Thus for our part we should not want health more than sickness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one – and so with everything else; desiring and choosing only what leads more to the end for which we are created. (source)

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