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The parable we hear today strikes many as unjust. Some people worked all day under the hot sun, and they only got paid the same amount as everyone else, even those who only worked for one hour. We want to shout, “That’s unfair!” We easily sympathize with the workers who grumble, “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 there is no injustice in what the master does. When he hired the first laborers at dawn, he made an agreement with them to pay them a day’s wage for a day’s work. At the end of the day, he kept that agreement. No one here is being paid less than a just wage. The fact that the workers who came later in the day were paid out of the master’s superabundant generosity — giving them what they needed to provide for their families that day — does not mean that the workers who came earlier were defrauded of anything. “My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go.”

It is the master’s own money that he gives, and so it is no injustice for him to be generous and merciful with the latecomers. “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?”

At the heart of this parable, there is the mindset of the master in contrast with the mindset of the laborers. His thoughts are not their thoughts, and his ways are not their ways (Is 55:8). This becomes an invitation to us to conform our mindset to that of the master. The envy of those who worked in the vineyard all day is an indication that they do not yet think as the master does.

While they were laboring under the sun all day, so was the master. They were working in the vineyard; he was running back and forth constantly between the vineyard and the marketplace. His concern was that no one remains there standing idle — that everyone be
given the chance to work in his vineyard.

When our mindset is conformed to that of the master, our concern becomes less about how hard or long we have been working and what our reward ought to be, and it becomes more about wanting everyone else to know the joy of working in the master’s vineyard also.

As Pope Benedict XVI said, “The first message of this parable is inherent in the very fact that the landowner does not tolerate, as it were, unemployment: he wants everyone to be employed in his vineyard. Actually, being called is already the first reward: to be able to work in the Lord’s vineyard, to put oneself at his service, to collaborate in his work, is in itself a priceless recompense that repays every effort. Yet only those who love the Lord and his kingdom understand this: those who instead work only for the pay will never realize the value of this inestimable treasure” (Angelus address, Sept. 21, 2008).

Joy is contagious. It is meant to be shared. And to share the joy of knowing and loving the Lord with others does not diminish that joy but only increases it. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: it is a kingdom of joy, not envy. It is a kingdom in which we can rejoice together at the Master’s superabundant generosity. Yes, it is labor under the day’s burden and the heat, but that burden is light when it is carried with love. To be able to work in the Lord’s vineyard and to love him as we share in his work is already the first reward.