Daily Reflections ...

Today’s parable of the workers is a lesson that flies in the face of capitalism. No matter what time of day the workers arrived and how much work they did, they all got paid the same amount.  Those who spent the whole day in the vineyard were frustrated. Shouldn’t they get more than those who came for the last hour of work? But each worker was given what they were promised. The employer was fair.

What if it wasn’t workers in a field but it was one of us. If one of us lives by faith, trying in everything we do to make the gospel known and then there is someone else, who everyday has just thought of themselves, who has hurt, manipulated and trodden over others to get whatever they want. Then, in the moments before their death, they turn to the Lord with a repentant heart and die in a state of grace. Our reward in heaven will be the same. The worker in us cries out this is unfair?  Jesus teaches us that yes it is fair – we are each given what we are promised.

We don’t earn our place alongside Christ by what we do or how hard we try, we are gifted it through grace and that gift is there for all to receive. As Fr Richard Rohr says, ‘There is nothing we can do that will make God love us any less, neither is there anything we can do to make him love us anymore.’ This love, the greatest love any of us will ever know, is enough.

+ Lord, your love is enough. Give me the generous heart to be thankful that others will share in that great love today.

by Nattasha Mierendorf