THE FIRST AND LAST

The house of Israel is the vine of God - who planted and watered it, preparing the Israelites to bear fruits of righteousness (Isaiah 5:7; 2-5). Israel failed to yield good fruits and the lord allowed his vineyard, Israel’s kingdom, to be overrun by conquerors (psalm 80:9-20). But God promise that one day he would replant his vineyard and its shoots would blossom to the end of the earth (Amos 9:15; Hosea 14:5-10).
This is the biblical backdrop to Jesus’ parable of salvation history in today’s Gospel. The landowner is God. The vineyard is the kingdom. The workers hired at down are the Israelite’s, to whom he first offered his covenant. Those hired later in the day are the gentiles, the non-Israelites, who, until the coming of Christ, were strangers to the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:11-13). In the lord’s great generosity, the same wages, the same blessings promised to the first called, the Israelites, will be paid to those called last, the rest of the nations.
This provokes grumbling; doesn’t the complaint of those first laborers sound like that of the older brother in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:29-30)? God’s ways, however, are far from our ways.
Like the gentiles, many will be allowed to enter the kingdom late- after having spent most of their days idling in sin. But even these call upon him near, as we sing in psalm. We should rejoice that God has compassion on all whom he has created. This should console us, too, especially if we have loved ones who remain far from the vineyard.
Our task is to continue laboring in his vineyard. As Paul says; let us conduct ourselves worthily, struggling to bring all men and women to the praise of his name amen.
REV FR. CYRIL UDOM, OCD