“Receiving the Gift of Salvation” - 25th Sunday OT (A) – 9.24.23

“Receiving the Gift of Salvation”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Mark the Evangelist Parish - Butler/Cranberry, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092423.cfm

In today’s Gospel we have the parable of the workers working in the landowner’s vineyard where the landowner goes out at different hours of the day and gets workers to work in the vineyard. He ends up paying them the same wage which of course makes the workers who have been there all day upset.

At first glance, based on earthly standards, it seems like the Lord is being unfair. Right, the ones who worked more should receive a higher wage.

However, this parable is meant to teach us about how God gives us the gift of salvation. The wage that the workers receive is heaven. Receiving the gift of salvation doesn’t work in the same way as receiving wages in a normal job.

There are people who have been faithful Catholics their whole lives. These are the people from the parable who have worked in the Lord’s vineyard from the very beginning.

Then there are those, as we saw in the parable, who join the vineyard at different times throughout the day. These are people who convert at different points throughout their life. Whether it’s college, in their 30s or 40s, after retirement, or even on their death bed.

According to how God gives us the gift of salvation, as we learned in the parable, they all deserve the same reward of salvation.

Those people who have been faithful Catholics from the beginning might be like the workers who have worked since the beginning of the day and question why they are receiving the same reward as someone who lived a very sinful life, but then converted at the very end of their life? Shouldn’t the one who has been a faithful Catholic for a longer time receive a greater reward?

What the Lord wants to do is change our mentality on how we view the wage of eternal salvation. He wants to adjust our focus from ourselves and what we do to gain salvation to instead, focus on God and His generosity in enabling us to receive salvation.

First, we have to understand that none of us deserve heaven. Even if we have been that faithful Catholic from the very beginning and have never strayed, we don’t deserve salvation.

Instead, we deserve death because of our sins. We aren’t owed anything.

It is only because of God’s generosity and mercy that we can receive the gift of spending eternity with Him forever. It is not based on anything that we do.

We believe as Catholics that we need works as well as faith to gain eternal salvation because works are how we show the Lord our love for Him and prove our faith. However, our works don’t earn us salvation because anything we offer to God is stained with our sin. It is only by God’s mercy and generosity that we are able to receive this gift of salvation.

Along those same lines, the gift of salvation is the greatest reward that we could ever receive from God. It is a gift, as I just said, that we don’t deserve in anyway because of our sin, but God shows His infinite generosity and love by enabling us to receive this gift of salvation.

One of the things that this parable reveals is how God desires us to share in this work of salvation. God doesn’t need any of us to work in His vineyard. He can do it all Himself. He doesn’t just hand us our salvation but enables us to share in His work. Those who share in His work, no matter their vocation, experience great joy.

We shouldn’t be thinking purely at what we will receive at the end of our lives, but rejoicing in that we can experience a taste of this gift now as we share in His work to bring His love to all the world. There is nothing greater than encountering God’s love and sharing that love with others.

If we’ve labored a long time in the vineyard, then we shouldn’t feel upset about those converting later getting the same reward. We should rejoice. If you’ve labored in the vineyard for a long time, then it should mean that you’ve grown in love and wisdom, and your greatest joy and desire is people encountering God’s love and getting to heaven.

In fact, not only will we rejoice in their salvation, but we will let them enter first out of love and humility. This is why the Lord says, “the last will be first, and the first will be last.” This isn’t to stick it to those who were first, but it reveals the humility and love that the first are meant to have. There is no sense of, “You labored more so you deserve more.” Again, salvation doesn’t work like that. We all receive the same reward, and it is those who came first that experience the unique joy of welcoming their once lost brothers and sisters into the joy of the Kingdom. Again, this is about God’s generosity, and not about what we have done, and for how long.

Finally, the main point I want us to get is that our main focus should be on heaven and being united with God forever. This is what we see in the 2nd reading. St. Paul recognized that if he is here on earth then the Lord still has work for him to do here. St. Paul says that he rejoices in the fruitful labor that the Lord has him doing because it helps lead people to salvation. However, as great as this work is, he desires heaven. He says, “If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

St. Paul’s heart longs for heaven. He’s not looking around at others and worrying about what they deserve vs. what he deserves. He just wants heaven. He just wants to be with Jesus. We need to have hearts like St. Paul who love the Lord with all our heart, and only desire to spend eternity with Him, and to desire that others may spend eternity with Him as well. It won’t matter to us who receives how much in the end, or who gets in first or last, we will only care about getting to heaven and being with our Lord forever.