Hi everyone, and welcome to Weekly Homilies with Father Mark Suslenko, Pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. We are part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. I'm Carol Vassar, parish director of communications, and this is Episode 32 of Season 6 for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary time: Sept. 24, 2023. Our Gospel reading is from Matthew, Chapter 20, verses 1-16a.
Jesus told his disciples this parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off.
And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o'clock, the landowner found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'
He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. 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?'
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.""
The Gospel of the Lord.
“Moments of Awe and Wonder” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
I'm sure that all of us are of the impression that the more you put yourself into something, the greater the return, or the more I give, the more I receive back. Whether this be our time, our talent, or our treasure, if I give more, I somehow deserve more. If I do more, I ought to receive more. This is true about how we organize the business of our lives.
Two people working on the same job, each doing the same thing. One works for eight hours, expecting to be paid one wage; another works for two hours and then receives the same pay as the one who worked eight hours. Our human minds have a problem finding sense in that because human judgment says you get what you deserve.
Likewise, we've all had these days, I'm sure, where we've been stressed, and one of the things on our list is grocery shopping. And so we plow through the store. We're in a hurry, but it seems like everybody else is out doing that same thing, and they only have two lines open at the checkout counters. And so you're behind all of these people, waiting and waiting and waiting, and all of a sudden, a third line opens up. And as you get ready to go over to that line, having waited there for 20 minutes, you realize that four people behind you have already got in, and that line is as long as the one you currently are in. They arrived on the scene last but now are being treated first.
It's the ironic twist of life, and it somehow gets us at this place where It just doesn't seem right, at least in human terms. But we're reminded today that God's ways and our ways are not often the same ways. The way we reason through things, the way we perceive things, is much different than the divine image of things.
To test out the limitations of our perception, of our ability to see, try an experiment when you go home. You probably don't even have to do it. You can just imagine it because you're going to realize it's true. Pick any point outside of your dwelling in which you live, your home. It could be the front of the house. It could be a corner of the house, it could be a side of the house, the back of the house, no matter what your perspective may want to be. As you find that place, now try to see three sides of your house at the same time. Try to see three sides of your house at the same time. You cannot do it. Because our perspective, the place in which you put yourself, does not allow yourself to see the three sides of the house. Now, because you can't see them, does it mean that the house really only has two sides? Well, no. You know, because of other experience that the house has four sides, you just can't see them.
Well, this is a good analogy for the difference sometimes between the ways of humanity and divine ways. Just because we can't always perceive them doesn't mean they don't exist. But how do we, as human beings, begin to change our perspective a bit and widen our vision so that we can at least appreciate better God's ways versus our ways and how those ways can make more sense to us as we hear them revealed, as in today's Gospel, where everybody gets the same, no matter what they did or when they came on the scene? Equal distribution.
And we say to ourselves, how can that be fair? We consider our own spiritual lives, and we convince ourselves even though we don't want to fully believe it, it's still going on underneath it all. That maybe, just maybe, if I do that something little extra thing, if I pray a little bit harder, if I try to live the Gospel just a little bit better, that maybe, just maybe, when I leave this earth, and I go to heaven, there will be this wonderfully decorated door with my name on it that's going to just automatically open up as my gigunda reward for all the good stuff I did in this world. That somehow that red carpet is just going to be laid out, and I'm going to get in the front line, and all these other people are going to linger behind because they weren't as good as I was. And there's a part of us that wants to believe that this reward is going to somehow be based on what we've done. And those that come later on the scene, well, tough luck for them, but they're going to have to struggle their way through those doors.
How do we begin to think differently about God's ways versus ours?
Well, there's an experience that we have which can be nurtured more deeply through prayer, and it's the experience of awe: A-W-E, awe. We've all experienced it at one point or another in our lives. It often happens spontaneously. We could be walking along a beach, and all of a sudden get caught up in the awe experience of its expansiveness. We can be perhaps on the top of a mountain, overlooking a huge terrain below us. We can easily get caught up in awe at some of the marvels and beauties of creation, and in particular, the wonder of human life itself, especially moments of birth and death, can bring us to that place of awe.
At the base of all of those experiences is another human experience called wonder. Wonder. When we begin to wonder about things, we don't do that often enough. And so when I actively, in prayer, make the choice to wonder, then God, through those moments when I allow myself to wonder, can bring me to moments of awe, in which everything in that moment begins to make sense. And that's how we can perceive God's ways. We're not going to necessarily find the tools of human reason - A plus B equals C - is not always going to play out. But, on the level of our souls, God's teachings can begin to make perfect sense, even though our minds are limited in their perspective to be able to comprehend them; our souls know it to be true.
So if we allow ourselves to wonder, God can bring us through prayer to a moment of awe, which then can lead us to an experience of wisdom, where we just know that something is true. And so when we listen to God's unconditional love and mercy, as we did today, being portrayed through the story of those workers, while it doesn't make human sense to us in our brains, we can step back and wonder about God's unconditional love and mercy, and allow that moment of wonder be turned into awe by God through a moment of prayer and begin to appreciate the magnitude of that mercy and that unconditional love and how much I really want and desire it. How much I crave it and need it. How much it claims me at a very deep part of who I am. This wonder and awe is what I truly need and desire.
And so, as I look at this unconditional love that God offers me, I realize that my life is really meant to obtain that. To obtain that. And so we look at other experiences that God places before us. The experience of the crucified Christ. How can human reason begin to make sense about the components of that experience? How a man who was innocent, who taught only love, can be treated in such a harsh and brutal way, suffer the agony of a cross, and then bring salvation to the world? Our human brains have a hard time grappling with that stuff, but we can step back in wonder and see the unconditional love of God playing through in those events and allow those things to touch us; bring us the gift of wisdom. And all of a sudden, that which defies human reason begins to make sense.
The same thing with the Eucharist. The changing of normal elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It's hard to explain using our brains, but if we open ourselves to the experience of wonder, step back, and bring that to a moment of prayer, God can bring us to a moment of awe when that very simple gesture begins to make sense and make a claim on us because it speaks of God's unconditional love and mercy.
So the way to God, really, our relationship with God is really based on awe, which then leads us to deeper faith. And when we open ourselves to moments of wonder that can get turned into awe, we gain wisdom and then begin to appreciate on the level of our soul how important the infinite, compassionate, all-encompassing love of God really is to me. And then, when I realize that, what happens? I realize that I have found that pearl of great price, what I've been searching for, what I need, what I desire. It doesn't matter how much effort it took for me to get there, and I don't have to worry about being in competition with you because I've obtained what I need, which is all that really matters.
Sometimes, love takes greater sacrifice for one person versus another. But what we obtain in doing so is that pearl of great price, unlike any other.
Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Learn more about our parish community at www.isidoreandmaria.org. And follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our music comes free of charge from Blue Dot Sessions in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’m Carol Vassar. Thanks for joining us.