Homily - Sunday 2014/09/21 - Workers in the Vineyard

Homily - Sunday

September 21, 2014

Workers in the Vineyard

 

Matthew 20:1-16A

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

 

           Imagine for a moment if I said to pull out your missal from in front of you and open it, and in it, each of you were to find a 20 dollar bill hidden inside, enough twenties so that everyone here got one and only one. Nice?!?! Huh? Everyone would be happy right? … well except for me, I would be out about 10 grand. That is why we are only imagining, so you can stop looking, it is not there, I promise. But going back to my imaginary scenario, imagine you are standing there with your new twenty, and you hear someone on this side scream out, “OOH I got a hundred dollar bill” and then over on that side, “Ooh mine has a hundred too.” Suddenly your twenty isn’t so great, you wish you had that hundred instead, right?

            So now you can imagine what it was like for the workers in the parable we read in today’s Gospel. The first group begins there day, happy to have found work right away, they have the opportunity to provide for their family. They are glad they will be able to eat, maybe get cloths, and pay toward some shelter. Then half way through the morning, the second group, they too are probably thankful for the work, they go to work for “what is just”. Again the landowner went back noon, 3, and again around 5, each time getting more workers, presumably agreeing to pay them a just wage to finish out the day. 

            But when he goes to pay them he starts with those who had worked the least amount of time. Making sure that everyone knows what he is doing. He gave out the same to everyone, regardless of the time they worked. Suddenly those that started, so thankful to have work for that day, are now upset that they feel cheated. But were they cheated? Didn’t they agree to work for a day’s wage? They felt much like I imagine you would feel standing there with your free twenty, they were upset because they didn’t get the best deal, the hundred dollars.

            But God, he is the landowner. It is through his grace, and his grace alone that we have anything at all, the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the jobs we have, the friends, family, and loved ones in our lives, all gifts from God. What we get from God is never earned, it is gifted. God gives, he doesn’t sell. Our salvation, our eternal rest in heaven with God isn’t bought by trading in points for good deeds. Our salvation is gifted from God.

            I heard a story that explains it well. A man gets to heaven and is at the gates talking to Saint Peter, and Saint Peter says to the man, “Let’s go over your life and we will tally up the points and if you get 200 points you will be let in.” So Saint Peter says “Tell me what have you done to get into heaven?” “Well”, says the man, “I have been married for 37 years to my wife, I have always been faithful, I’ve never even raised my voice to her, and always made sure to put her needs ahead of mine.” “Wow” Saint Peter replies “that’s great”, he looks in the book of points, and says “That’s worth 5 points.” The man begins to be very worried, if that was only 5 points, he still has 195 left. The man goes on “I worked for the same employer for 39 years, was never late, always put in a hard day’s work, and never stole, not even a pencil.” Saint Peter says “Yep, I see that here in your records, well done.” He glances at the book of points “3 points”

            At this point the man has 192 points left and he proclaims, “But Saint Peter at this rate I will never get to 200 points, the only way I will get into heaven is by the grace of God, with that Saint Peter says, “Well done, 192 points, welcome home.”, as he opens for the man the gates of heaven. I imagine that God wants us to come to heaven with the most points possible, because by doing so, we show our love for Him, but ultimately the points we earn are meaningless, without the mercy of God, and the sacrifice of Jesus.

            We aren’t going to earn our way in to heaven, we aren’t to earn enough points so that he has to open the gates. The only way we are going to get into heaven is if we are sinless, or in the absence of being sinless, as most of us are, we have to reach out to God for forgiveness. It is Jesus that offers us that forgiveness. By dying on the cross, he gave his life and in doing so allowed us to reconcile with God, making up for our massive shortage of points if you will. 

            So in this parable God is indeed the generous Landowner. That makes us -- the workers. The workers that were found in the marketplace, sitting idly. You may not have noticed, but the landowner he didn’t go out to their homes and lift them up from sitting on the couch in front of the TV while eating chips and dip. Nor did he go up to them and hand them a day’s wage and say “Here, the day is almost done take this money and go home.” They had to work for the landowner, they had to show the landowner that they were willing to do what he wanted. It was the gift of the landowner to make up for the rest of the day that they had missed already.

            So, as workers, do we go to the marketplace, sure, we are here today, celebrating the Eucharist at Mass, participating in His sacraments, we have shown God that we are willing to be disciples, followers of him, his workers. But what ways are we sitting idly, when we could be working for Him? How much of our time, talent, and treasure do we put forth to God?  Do we spend our time seeking Him in prayer, seeking Him through fasting, thanking God for his graces, his gifts?

In what other ways do we do the work of God, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, bringing those that live life outside the acceptance of others into the fold? Lifting up the fallen, bringing hope to those in despair, compassion to those who ache. Do we humble ourselves to be the servants of the lowly? God wants us to work in his vineyard, he wants us to go out into the fields, not sit idly at the marketplace.

Homily - Saturday Daily Mass 2014/09/2- Spreading the Seed

Homily - Saturday Daily Mass
September 20, 2014
Spreading the Seed
Memorial of  Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions

Luke 8:4-15 View Readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

 

As many of you know, I grew up in upstate NY and spent a lot of time fishing with my dad and the rest of my family on the Saint Lawrence River. The river runs through an area known as Thousand Islands where it winds its way from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean through Islands of hard granite, many with cliff sides of nothing but stone hard rock. What would always amaze me is how in the middle bare rocky cliff would be a lone tree growing out … no soil, just the roots embedded into the rocky cliffside like the fingers of a seasoned mountain climber. I wonder about out of all the saplings that started out on that rocky cliff, some fell down into the water, as the wind blew, some dried out during dry periods. Some, I am sure, succumbed to the harsh winters. The likelihood of surviving such an inhospitable environment must have been insurmountable.

Today’s readings, they talk about spreading the seed of God’s word. Nothing serves as a better example of spreading the word of God’s love than the story of the Saints, some of which are Martyrs, that gave their life for their faith, especially those whose memorial we celebrate today, Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions.  Let me read a bit of their story from Americancatholic.org:

This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred himself during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew the son traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang the other Saint we memorialize today was a lay apostle and married man, aged 45, who lost many family members to Martyrdom, and gave his own life traveling to China in an attempt to bring priests into Korea.

Christianity came slowly to Korea beginning in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for bringing taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883.

When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 he canonized, besides Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men. During their canonization the Pope said "The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by lay people. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians in the Church of silence in the north of this tragically divided land"

We can see from this one example out of many how the spreading of the seed can take hold in what may otherwise seem like unfertile ground. That even when seed lands on the hopelessly rocky Cliffside it can, if it is God’s will take root, and sustain, blossom successfully and bear fruit. That we are not to judge where we spread the seed of the Gospel, but to spread it generously, and let God determine if it succeeds to bear fruit. Go forth and share God’s love, with everyone you meet, be God’s love to everyone you meet, and as today’s Gospel ends: embrace the Word with a good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”