[1]Success means different things to different people, but whatever your personal definition, I am willing to guess you want to regularly feel the thrill of achieving your goals, making measurable progress and being respected as a leader in your industry or ministry. The good news is that, barring an uninhibited crisis, we are in control of how we will schedule and navigate through our days and consistent action dictates where our businesses, brands, and relationships go[2] or do we have control?
Our whole culture is based on the “American Dream”; believing that with hard work and the sweat of our brow, we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and become a millionaire! I used to buy into this concept until I met the clients of the Daily Bread in Melbourne, FL, a local soup kitchen and social services agency. The Daily Bread clients on the domestic economy ladder as day laborers are among the poorest persons in the community, much like the day laborers in the gospel parable.
I use to think, the only way for me to step up my game was to surround myself with players and leaders better than myself, players and leaders that would challenge me and help develop me to be a better player and professional. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” (Is 55:8)
Hurricane Irma reconnected me to the lessons learned at Daily Bread, when she took away the comforts I worked so hard for and believed I’d earned. I was plunged into darkness each evening for six days and nights, no AC, no TV, no computer, no hot shower, and an empty refrigerator, feeling completely disconnected. This disconnectedness reopened my heart and awareness, not only to the Daily Bread clients, but to the local people in desperate need that go beyond temporary hurricane power disruptions.
It is easy to see how some would look upon this gospel parable as a form of “divine welfare”—that you can hardly work at all and get the same reward as those who worked their tails off and “who bore the day’s burden and the heat.” (Mt 20:12). Jesus seems to be saying that you and I can come to Mass every Sunday, even daily Mass, say our daily prayers; that we can be kind and generous to our neighbor; that we can even love our enemies—and that we’ll get the same reward as someone who has a deathbed conversion! This just seems to fly in the face of our sense of justice![3]
“God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.” Therefore, God’s generosity will stick in our craw for the rest of our lives until we give in. Until we surrender, until we admit that we are not in control, that we can’t work our way to heaven, nor can we pray our way into heaven. Until we come to the realization we don’t have a say in who gets to heaven and especially who doesn’t get there. We can be blinded by God’s generosity to those we think are undeserving. Envy blinds us to God’s nearness at all times and keeps us from gratitude for his generous mercy.
Now let’s keep our heads about us here. Some might start thinking they can loosen up on our spiritual disciplines and good works, if all we have to do is a deathbed confession and we’re in! This week in our daily scripture readings St. Paul in a letter to Timothy, was reminding him that if he “should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God.” (1 Tm 3:15) St. Paul also writes to the Romans saying, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” (Rom 12:2) Still more, St Luke says, “the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” (Lk 12:48) Therefore, I’d pretty sure none of us, who are here at Mass with the courage to approach these mysteries and profess our “Amen”, can use the deathbed confession strategy to obtain heaven. We know too much. We know how we ought to act as the Church of the living God.
Our gracious and merciful God does promise eternal life to all who enter into relationship with Him, whenever we do so and even after we fall. This is a pure gift. We are not entitled to it.[4] God gives so much more than anyone can earn by a lifetime of good works and acts of devotion. In his great compassion, he freely offers salvation to those who appear to be last and least in the eyes of the world, as well as to those who welcome God’s generosity at the last moment of their lives. God’s justice can look more like human mercy. We can grumble and cry, “unfair” or we can step up our game and be the mentors that helps others to raise their game.
Therefore, it is wise for us to have consistent spiritual routines, like daily prayer and regular participation in Mass, and to have hardworking, successful mentors to help us step up our game. Yet in the end, it is our willingness to step up and be the mentor, because it’s when we serve those who feel they have nothing left to give, it’s when we walk with those who are at their lowest moments of life, and it’s when we open our hearts to be in relationship with the poorest in our community that our hearts are opened and we become aware that complete abandonment to God’s ways is the purest gift that will lift us all up on the last day.
[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition. © 1986. Scriptures: Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20-24,
27; Matthew 20:1-16.
[2] Internet:
https://www.inc.com/brenda-della-casa/5-ways-to-step-up-your-game-and-boost-your-career-instantly.html
[3] Naked, and You Clothed Me, Edited by Deacon Jim
Knipper © 2013. “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” by Fr. Paul
Holmes
[4] Living the Word, Scripture Reflections and
Commentaries for Sundays & Holy Days.
© 2016 by Laurie Brink, O.P. and Paul Colloton, OSFS, World Library Publications.
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