GOD'S WAYS AND HUMAN WAYS.
September 24, 2023.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – A.
"You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what
is just." Matthew 20:4
A Swahili proverb says: “Rice is all one but there are many
ways of cooking it.” And a Traditional proverb adds: “It’s never too late to
mend your ways.”
God is just. He is the fount of all justice. Nevertheless,
his justice is not equal to our human justice. His ways are not our ways. For
God, justice is another expression of his love. It is not a distributive or a
retributive justice, but a justice of concern and love. His justice goes
together with his generosity. God's justice demands that he act mercifully
towards every one of his creatures, especially sinners, and his mercy is always
enacted by his love.
Justice is a term used for what is right or as it should be.
Justice is one of God’s attributes and flows out from His holiness. Justice and
righteousness are often used synonymously in the Bible. Since righteousness is
the quality or character of being right or just, it is another attribute of God
and incorporates both His justice and holiness. We cannot begin to understand
God’s justice unless we first understand what is sin. Sin in general is
lawlessness. It is something against God's Law, against His ways. Sin is
something man chooses in opposition to love and God. But to save mankind from
sin, God chooses to become one with man. He sent his Son into our likeness. And
so, Jesus, coming into the world taught us how God wants us, be with him, live
with him, and share in his life. In one word, Jesus showed us the way to God's
kingdom and his love. With the Lord Jesus, we learn that God treats us not
because of our merits but through his love and mercy that go beyond our limits
and sinfulness.
The Prophet Isaiah can make it clear in the first reading.
God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. The Lord does
not appreciate things the way human beings do. Instead, his mercy is the
measure of his love. In everything, God teaches us how we should judge, how we
should perceive realities, and how we should deal with them.
The temptation of many people has been to have a God of
human dimension, a God who thinks, acts, and behaves just like a man does. A
God who judges like a man. The Gospel comes surprisingly to put us in confusion
and teach us about the way of God. We are given to see how true Isaiah's
prophecy is that God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not ours.
Therefore, we should not try to pull him down at our level. He is far above and
beyond our standards. All that he does is just and according to his love and
mercy. If God shows to be generous, it is because of his great and merciful
love. No one deserves anything from him. We receive everything graciously
without any merit from our side.
Let's look deeper into our Gospel parable. May we say it,
stating that it is just an analogy to present a reality that is far beyond.
For, the Kingdom of God is beyond a simple land. It is a state of life. The
Lord Jesus gives the analogy of a landowner who hires workers for his vineyard.
To show how just this landowner is, he starts with an agreement, one denarius
each per day. In Tagalog, we speak of "arawan". It is more
advantageous for the workers than a "pakyawan" where the agreement is
for the whole work to be completed.
Then, the generosity of the landowner is firstly revealed
with the work schedule: some from 6 am to 6 pm, the first hour workers. Some
from 9 am to 6 pm; some others from 12 noon to 6 pm; others again from 3 pm to
6 pm. And lastly, the unfortunate eleventh-hour workers, from 5 pm to 6 pm.
These were primarily unfortunate for not being hired by
anyone, but the master who does not count merits or human efforts but shows
justice through love will treat them with justice. It was not their mistake if
no one hired them. Like all the other workers, also they deserve love and
fairness. And the payoff will prove how fair God is with all his children, and
that his ways are beyond our human standards.
We said ahead that human justice is retributive and
sometimes distributive. God's justice, instead, is purely love and generosity.
He treated all the workers, from the first to the last, the same way. Humanly,
this is unfair, thus, the complaint of the first-hour workers: "These last
ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the
day’s burden and the heat." But the answer of the landowner tells us who
God is: "My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for
the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. 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?"
We should not complain about God being generous to our
brothers and sisters. Like you and I, they are also children of God and they
deserve to be loved. We should rather live like Paul, and make Christ the
center of our beings. In so doing, life or death becomes a gain, provided that
all praise, glory, and adoration belong to Christ and him alone.
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