Fr Ed Homily 9-20-20

Divine Ways

We understand that God is divine. Because God is divine, He can always be close to us. Even in times of great sorrow or great pain, we can feel God’s presence. Then there are times when it is extremely difficult to feel God’s presence. Surprisingly, these times are when we pray every day, we go to Mass on Sunday, it seems that we are doing everything right, but we find it difficult to find God. We ask questions like, “Where is God in my life?”. And when we don’t get an answer, we feel that God has abandoned us.

I think we should all realize something that should be obvious. God’s ways are not our ways. For humans, we are extremely limited in what we can do and understand. But with God, there are no limits. And we must all realize that everything that God does, God only does what is best for us. We just need to trust God. God will never stop loving us. But for us humans, this is where we have the most problems, because we tend to stop loving and trusting God.

Another time to try to understand God is in the parable today. We can think of the owner as a metaphor for God. It is not normal for the owner to go out and search for workers. Instead, the manager would be. But in this parable, it is as if God were searching, waiting/hoping, for us. And God does not come only once a day, but many times during the day. I think we can say that God is always looking for us every day.

And if we stopped and contemplated for a moment how the workers were paid, we would realize that if God had paid the first workers first and the last workers last, we would not have a parable. There would have been no questions about what God did. But God’s ways are not our ways. So God pays the last workers first, the same amount he pays the first workers. Now, in our normal way of thinking, something is wrong. Perhaps God wants us to understand that He is a generous God. In our hearts, God wants us to understand that He is always generous in forgiving and extending mercy. In this way, God invites us to trust Him.

In the last part of this gospel, God challenges us. “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?” Sisters and brothers, do we really want to have a grudge against God? I think not. As simple human beings, we have no hope of changing God’s mind. But understanding that God loves us, we have great hope that God will know what is best for us if we trust Him. This week, let us all give ourselves always to God and ask of Him what is best for us.

May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen