“Why be envious because I am generous?” (Mt 20:16)
How to understand this story from the Gospels?
On the face of it, it looks like something to do with employment rights, with politics and economics.
On the one hand, we might read it and think that it about the rights of the employer, the vineyard owner, the boss. It is his business, his vineyard, his money. The workers work at his behest. He hires as he wills, and he can pay as much, or as little as he wants. The workers have no rights, and rely upon the good disposition of the man who is really in charge. It is a parable for the rich!
Yet on the other hand, we could read it very differently. The vineyard owner comes to an agreement with the men (they are all men, of course) as to what is a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. One denarius a day is the living wage. And those who are unable to work for a full day, should not be deprived of a living income because of this. Even if someone is unable to work, so the parable seems to indicate, their basic human dignity means that they should not be deprived of what they need to live. It is a parable for the poor!
Well whether these views of society are right or wrong - and we may all have our own opinions - this is a very bad way to read the Gospel. All too often people will take Scripture as a sort of peg to hang their own opinions upon, picking the odd verse out of context, reading a text in a way in which it was never meant to be read, expounding one passage yet ignoring many others.
No - this Gospel isn’t about workers rights, or employers power, about red tape or the welfare state. It is much more fundamental than that. It is clearly, very clearly, about the boundless generosity of God, and the way in which we respond to it.
“Why be envious because I am generous?” (Mt 20:16)
It was Pope Francis, who in his wonderful letter “Gospel of Joy” wrote that too often Christians emerge from Church looking as if it was always Lent but never Easter. (It reminded me of the statement in CS Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Warderobe that in Narnia it was always Winter but never Christmas).
It’s true: We find petition so much easier than thanksgiving, asking for something we need, rather than being grateful for something we already have. We are very aware of what we haven’t got, yet we take for granted, we don’t even notice, what we do have. We become, if we are not careful, the Church of the Half Empty Glass, always thirsting for what is missing - rather than savouring what is right before our eyes.
And yet - and yet. When we see what we have, when we identify What God has given us, When we appreciate it - then we are transformed not with envy … but with joy, for the person who is truly happy is not the one who has everything he wants, but who is grateful for everything he has.
Last week, we were taught that the mercy which God shows to us, should be find its expression in our own readiness to forgive. And this week - a very similar point - the boundless generosity of God should be expressed in our gratitude, and because of that in our own generosity to others.
For his generosity is indeed boundless. It is limitless. The sun and rain fall on the rich and poor alike. There are no favourites in his kingdom, no places of honour. No pride of place for the rich, or the cradle catholic, or the person of status. No back of the queue, for the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The blessings of his love and his forgiveness are unending.
“Why be envious because I am generous?” (Mt 20:16)
No: his generosity should not be met with our envy but with our gratitude, and because of our gratitude, then our generosity, our happiness, our welcome too. The gladness of our gratitude does not close our hearts with envy, but opens our arms with joy.
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