Isaiah 55:6-9 / Philippians 1:20-24, 27 / Matthew 20:1-16
The term “last minute” often evokes sudden emotions.
Because the term “last minute” is usually followed by other words like “last minute problems” or “last minute interruptions” or “last minute disruptions”.
Such situations are certainly unpleasant surprises that immediately give rise to tension, stress, anxiety or confusion.
This often results in strained relationships, the blame-game, and quarrels.
Simply because something bad has happened or something bad is going to happen, and so no one is happy about it.
In fact, everyone will be angry because someone or some people were irresponsible or negligent or has overlooked an important matter.
So “last minute-whatever” are not pleasant surprises, but they might also remind us to expect the unexpected.
In the gospel parable, there were a couple of last-minute surprises.
In the parable, the landowner sets out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.
There seems to be an abundance of workers as he kept hiring at the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour.
Then at the 11th hour, the landowner found more workers standing around because no one had hired them.
Yet, despite being the 11th hour, which means that there is only one hour of work left, the landowner still hired those workers.
It seems like a last minute surprise, and for those workers, it was certainly a surprise.
It was a pleasant surprise beyond their expectation.
But for those workers who were hired at the start of the day, they grumbled because they had expected more but got the same wage as those hired at the 11th hour.
This parable gives us an insight into the mind of God and His ways.
One of which is that length of time is irrelevant to God.
It doesn't matter to God whether a person is a lifelong Catholic or a last-minute convert.
God has no favourites, and He gives His blessings to those who ask for it, and to those who need it.
And the parable also addresses our human weakness in the areas of jealousy and entitlement.
The workers who were hired first got the same wage as those who were hired at the 11th hour.
Instead of being thankful and grateful for their wages, they grumbled at the landowner.
They were jealous of those last-minute workers, and they thought they should be entitled to more.
But God's ways are not man's ways, and God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, as we heard in the first reading.
God is truth and justice. So, all the workers were paid as agreed upon.
The ways and the thoughts of God are not that difficult to understand, but it is man's selfish thoughts and greedy ways that cause confusion and frustration in life.
So, while the 11th hour hiring of the workers was a pleasant surprise, the last-minute grumbling of the workers who were hired first was a sour taste of jealousy and entitlement.
The second reading tells us this: Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the Gospel of Christ.
In other words, never do anything that we can't offer to God.
Once upon a time, there was a selfish man. He liked everything to be his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even his friends or the poor.
One day, the man lost a bag of thirty gold coins. He went to his friend’s house and told him how he lost his gold coins.
His friend was a kind man. As his friend’s daughter was coming from an errand, she found that bag of thirty gold coins.
When she arrived home, she told her father what she had found. The girl’s father told her that the bag of gold coins belong to his friend and he sent for him.
When the selfish man arrived, the father told him how his daughter had found the bag of thirty gold coins and handed it to him.
After counting the gold coins, the man said that ten of them was missing and had been taken by the girl, as he had forty gold coins in the bag.
He further insisted that he will recover the remaining amount from the father. But the girl’s father refused.
The man left the bag of gold coins and went to the court and informed the judge there about what had taken place between him and the girl’s father.
The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked the girl how many gold coins did she find. She replied thirty gold coins.
The judge then asked the selfish man how many gold coins did he lose and he answered forty gold coins.
The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him because the girl found thirty and not forty as he claimed to have lost. The judge then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if anybody is looking for them he will send for the girl.
The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found forty gold coins he will send for him.
It was then that the man confessed that he lied and that he lost thirty gold coins, but the judge did not listen to him.
So, the ways of man may be corrupted and dishonest, but the ways of God will prevail with justice and truth.
The thoughts of man may be slanted in selfishness and greed, but the thoughts of God are towards love and mercy.
Let us walk in the ways of the Lord and we will understand the thoughts of God.
Let us never do anything that we cannot offer to God.
And at the 11th hour, or even at the last minute, God will show us His wonderful blessings when we follow His ways.