![\"Vineyard](\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/vineyard-500x333.jpg\")
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Today is Catechetical Sunday,
\na day we pray for and bless those who instruct our children in the faith.
\nSome of them do this for a living, as teachers at our parish school.
\nSome of them do this as volunteers in the religious education program,
\ngiving up hours of their personal time each week.<\/p>\n
We might ask ourselves, why would someone choose to do this?
\nWhy do the school teachers work for less than they could make
\nin a public school?
\nWhy do the volunteers spend their own time working as volunteers
\nwhen they could be doing something else with their time?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s broaden the question:<\/p>\n
Why would we choose to give up our personal time
\nto gather here today?<\/p>\n
Why come to Andi\u2019s book study every week?
\nWhy come to a class on the Reformation or attend Theology on Tap?
\nWhy is a member of the Good Samaritan Guild
\nspending hours each week
\ntaking care of a fellow parishioner with a broken ankle?<\/p>\n
Why do some of us help at the House of Charity?
\nWhy are so many people signed up to give blood this weekend?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s broaden the question even further:<\/p>\n
Why does the Church in Spokane have a House of Charity?
\nWhy is there a St. Margaret\u2019s Shelter,
\na St. Anne\u2019s Children and Family Center?
\nWhy do we spend money, time, and resources
\non sending relief to other countries?
\nWhy do we speak out
\nin support of immigration reform and the rights of unborn children?<\/p>\n
Why do we do all of these things?<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s in Scripture, we might answer.
\nIsaiah tells us to seek the Lord while he may be found,
\nto call to him while he is near.
\nSt. Paul tells us to conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the gospel.<\/p>\n
But those readings tell us what we ought to do.
\nWhy do we choose to listen to them and act on them?
\nWhat is our motivation for being a disciple?<\/p>\n
To answer that question we need to turn to the gospel
\nand the Parable of the Good Employer.<\/p>\n
This is a classic parable.
\nLike all good parables, it shocks us.
\nIt makes us scratch our head.<\/p>\n
In fact, whenever we come across something in Scripture
\nthat is difficult or puzzling like this,
\nthat\u2019s usually a good sign to stop and spend some time on it,
\nrather than skipping over it.
\nSo let\u2019s spend some time with this parable.<\/p>\n
The landowner who owns a vineyard.
\nIn Scripture, a vineyard is often used to represent the people of God.
\nSo God, the landowner, goes out at dawn to hire vineyard workers.
\nThen he comes back again at nine, then noon, then three,
\nand finally at five.<\/p>\n
This is similar to how each of us receive the call
\nand respond to the gospel.
\nEach of us comes to discipleship in a different way
\nat different stages of life.
\nMaybe we\u2019ve worked in the vineyard since dawn.
\nMaybe it was in Catholic grade school or religious education,
\nand something a teacher said or did struck us,
\nand the Holy Spirit began working on us.
\nMaybe it was something that happened
\non a retreat in high school or college.
\nMaybe it was when we got married
\nand we saw the deep faith of our spouse.
\nMaybe it was when our children were born.
\nMaybe we felt the call when we were younger
\nand we kind of drifted away,
\nand the birth of our children brought us back to practicing our faith.
\nMaybe it was in middle age after a series of tragic events,
\nor after living a life that felt kind of empty.
\nMaybe it\u2019s in old age and we\u2019re starting to think about
\nwhat comes after this life.
\nThere are even some people who embrace gospel on their death bed,
\nmaybe even in a jail cell.<\/p>\n
The Good Employer, the Landowner, calls us all at different times.<\/p>\n
Now returning to the parable,
\nit\u2019s the end of the day, and it\u2019s time to be paid.
\nThese are day laborers,
\nso they need this day\u2019s wages to buy food and support their families.<\/p>\n
This time something unusual occurs, and Jesus is alerting his readers
\nto pay attention.
\nThe landowner orders the last workers to be paid first.
\nIn our world, the kingdom of earth,
\nthey would be paid for the hour that they worked.<\/p>\n
But in the Kingdom of Heaven things work a little differently.
\nGod\u2019s ways are not our ways, as Isaiah says in the first reading.
\nThe landowner has compassion on them.
\nHe knows they have a family to support,
\nso he gives them a full day\u2019s wage.
\nThey\u2019ve only worked for an hour, and only in the cool shade of evening.
\nYet they get the full day\u2019s pay
\nout of the goodness of his heart,
\nout of sheer generosity.<\/p>\n
The first to be hired assume they\u2019re going to get more.
\nThey did ten times the work in the hottest part of the day.<\/p>\n
So when they get the same daily wage, how do they react?
\nProbably the way most of us would:
\nthey start to grumble.<\/p>\n
Is that fair?<\/p>\n
When we come to payday in the Kingdom of Heaven,
\nat the end of our lives,
\nwhat\u2019s going to happen?<\/p>\n
Those of us who have been laborers in God\u2019s vineyard for years,
\nthose of us who were called and embraced the gospel at a young
\nand who have been coming to Mass faithfully,
\nthose of us who have been volunteering,
\nsending our check off every week to the church,
\ngoing to Adoration,
\npraying the rosary with our families,
\nmaking sure our kids have a good upbringing,
\ndonating blood year after year,
\nteaching children in religious education classes for decades,
\nthey will receive the same payment
\nas those who were just baptized yesterday,
\nor who embraced the gospel on their death bed,
\nor after spending fifteen years in prison?<\/p>\n
Is it fair that God should save those who turn to God
\nat the end of their lives,
\nwhen others have served God faithfully throughout their lives?<\/p>\n
Instinctively we cry, \u201cNo! It\u2019s not fair!\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ve worked years for God, slaving in the heat of the noonday sun.
\nAnd this person who embraced God at the end
\nand bypassed all the rest,
\nthey get the same reward that I earned by the sweat of my brow?\u201d<\/p>\n
And there it is.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve earned\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
When we start to believe that we earn our salvation,
\nthen we run into the same trouble
\nthat the workers hired at dawn ran into:
\nWe think that we\u2019re owed something based on how hard we work.<\/p>\n
But these good things we do
\naren\u2019t being tallied up in a record book somewhere.
\nThese good things aren\u2019t about working our way into heaven.
\nSalvation is God\u2019s gift to us, it isn\u2019t something we earn.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t a country club in heaven
\nfor those who have worked longer for the kingdom,
\nyou know with a grand view of the Beatific Vision,
\nand then a little cottage for the people who came late to the party.<\/p>\n
Everybody gets the same thing.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s go back to our question.
\nWhy do we do the things that we do if it\u2019s not to earn our salvation?
\nWhy should we bother giving blood to someone,
\nwhy should we bother coming to Mass
\nwhen we\u2019d rather be sleeping in or watching the game,
\nwhy care for the poor, why pray?<\/p>\n
Why bother if it\u2019s not going to get us anything?
\nWhat is our motivation for being a disciple?<\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s actually a secondary question.
\nThere\u2019s an even more important question behind it.<\/p>\n
The better question is, \u201cWhy does God even call us to be a disciple?\u201d
\nIt\u2019s good to ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s our motivation for being a disciple?\u201d
\nbut even before we answer that question we have to ask,
\n\u201cWhy does God want me as a disciple?\u201d<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t need workers for his vineyard.
\nHe could do this himself.
\nWho am I to be asked to be a part of bringing salvation to the world?
\nGod wants me to help build the Kingdom of Heaven?
\nWhy?<\/p>\n
Because that\u2019s where we get our dignity,
\nthat\u2019s where we get our meaning.
\nThat\u2019s how we become full human beings,
\nwhen we participate in the work of building the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n
When we bless our children before they go to sleep,
\nwe are ushering in the kingdom.
\nWhen we sign up to work at the House of Charity,
\nwhen we come to Mass to be in community,
\nwhen we turn to the person next to us for the Sign of Peace
\nand really look into their eyes
\nand really shake their hand,
\nand really convey to them how much we honor their presence,
\nthen we are building up the kingdom,
\nworking in the vineyard of the Lord.<\/p>\n
And we are working in the vineyard because it gives us life,
\nit makes us more fully human.<\/p>\n
God calls us to be workers not to earn our way in,
\nbut so that we can participate in the blessings he has bestowed on us.
\nSo that we can be bearers of blessing.
\nWe don\u2019t bear the burden of the day,
\nwe bear his blessing to the world.<\/p>\n
So in a few moments when we bless these catechists,
\nwe can only do that because God
\nin his great love and generosity
\nhas given us the call to do that.
\nAnd when they go out to teach the children
\nand instruct them in the ways of faith,
\nthey can only do it because God
\nin his great love and generosity
\nhas called them to do it.<\/p>\n
That is why we do what we do.
\nBecause God, in his great love and generosity
\nhas called us to.<\/p>\n