Tag Archives: parable

The Parable of the Prodigal Employer

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Byzantine gospel. Paris, National Library

Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Is 55:6-9
Phil 1:20c-24, 27a
Mt 20:1-16a

As Luke tells us the story of the Prodigal Father who unconditionally welcomes back his errant son, Matthew gives us the parable of the Prodigal Vineyard Owner.

Matthew’s final words may lead us to interpret the parable as an allegory: “last” people receive the same reward as “first” people. When traveling, were you ever annoyed to discover that the person sitting next to you had purchased a ticket at the last moment at a fraction of the cost you had paid months in advance?  And you both receive an equal allotment of peanuts!  Is this the way Matthew’s first century audience felt on hearing this parable.  In many ways they would see themselves as the early workers in the vineyard. What are they hearing?

They hear of a vineyard. This is a magical, beautiful word for the Jewish people. The prophets speak of Israel as the vine and vineyard cared for by the Lord. “Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth  (Hosea 10:1).”  “I have planted you, a choice vine, a shoot of soundest stock  (Jer 2:21; and 5:10; 6:9; 12:10).”  “Sing of the delightful vineyard! I, the Lord, am its keeper  (Is 27:2).”  “Your mother was like a vine planted beside the water  (Ez 19:10-14 and 15:1-8; 17:3-10; 19:10-14).”

These were people who grew their food and cultivated grapes for their wine. They were a people who valued a good harvest more than we do.  They knew the pain of enemy weeds and the consequences of laziness that led to poor planting or care of seedlings and to untrimmed vines. They rejoiced in the harvest and the good meals that crowned their efforts. The vineyard of the Lord, the house of Israel, speaks to them of God’s attention, care, delight, and life! How beautiful an image it was for these people of the year 80 or so!

And when they heard the word “ harvest,” it must have been like a call to arms! That the vineyard owner hired workers several times during the day may well speak of the urgency of gathering the grapes.  There is not a moment to lose! Even an hour’s work will save some grapes that might otherwise die on the vine. Many in Matthew’s audience must have involuntarily flexed their shoulder muscles at the memory of hours spent laboring in the vineyards.

Matthew’s words “vineyard” and “harvest” will not trigger in us the same feelings they did for his first audience, but it seems that we and that audience do share a response. We question the justice of the way the vineyard owner paid the workers. We know what it is to feel envy of what others receive. But should we not rejoice with the recipients? Are we not often the recipient of unmerited gifts?

The parable brings us in touch with the urgency of the harvest and introduces us to a very generous vineyard owner whose justice we tend to question.  Through it Matthew reassures us that we are still the cherished vines of the Lord, that a harvest continues to call us to be workers, and that we must stand with humble reverence before a Prodigal Vineyard Owner whose generosity far exceeds any boundary we may erect.

“O shepherd of Israel…take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted (Psalm 80:1,16).”

Father Bill Murphy, C.P. is the pastor of St. Joseph Monastery Passionist Parish in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Crickets, Coins, and Symphonies

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

1 Tm 6:13-16
Lk 8:4-15

A friend once told me this story: A countryman came to the city to meet a friend.  As they were walking through the bustling streets, the countryman said to his city friend, “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” the city man asked

“There is a cricket in that bush!” he said pointing to the bush at the nearby street corner.

“How can you hear the sound of a tiny cricket among all the noises of the city?  There can’t possibly be a cricket in that bush!”

Sure enough, the two of them walked over and the countryman found a lone cricket sitting on a branch of the bush.

“I don’t understand,” the city man said, “It amazes me that you can hear the sound of that tiny cricket in this huge city!”

“I am a country man, my ears know this sound and I can hear it among the other noises that are not familiar to me.”

As he said that, a couple of coins dropped behind the two friends.  At the sound of the coins dropping, the city man turned around.

The countryman said, “It amazes me that among all these noises in the city you can hear the sound of money.”

In this story, the two men walk through the same noisy city, yet their ears pick up on different sounds based on what they are familiar to hearing – one the sound of a cricket, the other the sound of money.  This story and today’s gospel – the parable of the sower and seed- contain a similar message about the importance of listening and challenge us to examine what we choose to listen to in our lives.

Hearing and listening are two very different things.  We can imagine that in the story there were many noises in the city – the sounds of cars, buses, horns honking, people talking, noises that both undoubtly heard, however what they listened to varied between the two friends.  We listen to things we value.  Today’s gospel challenges us to think about what we listen to – do we listen to the word of God or are we like the city man who listens and responds to the sound of money or other worldly things?  Many say that they cannot hear God – perhaps it is because we haven’t taken the time first to teach our ears how to listen for God’s voice, how to hear it and distinguish it among the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.   We have to examine our lives and seek to uproot whatever keeps us from listening to God and nourish that which keeps us attune to God’s word and grounded in our faith.

There is still one more message we can glean from the parable today.  I believe that the parable wants to tell us more than just what will happen to us if we don’t listen to God’s word, but rather, the parable wants us to imagine what possibilities God’s word holds in store for each person.  I think of the movie August Rush in which August, an 8 year old musical genius, walks through New York City and hears the ordinary sounds of the city as a musical orchestra.  Each sound creates an explosion of music in his brain and he begins to write musical notes for each sound he hears and eventually composes an incredible symphony performed for thousands of people.   He says in the movie, “Music is all around us, all you have to do is listen.”  He is right.  Music surrounds us in our ordinary, messy human lives. God’s word is this music – it is everywhere, waiting to be heard, filled with a potential energy that awaits us hearing it, capturing it, and using it to bear fruit.   When we discover God’s word, when takes root in our being, we are harmonized, energized and are able to weather the hardships to ultimately bear good fruit.  The first step begins in listening.  And though listening may seem like a passive process, I believe that we are called to make it an active process.  We are called to seek out God’s word, to seek out the music and beauty in life and begin composing the symphony that God designed us to compose.

Jean Baumgardner
St. Vincent de Paul Society – Milwaukee, Meal Programs Manager
2009-2010 Passionist Volunteer International in Honduras

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Wedding Bells Bring Headaches

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Judges 11:29-39a
Matthew 22:1-14

Weddings always seem to raise the level of anxiety for those most closely involved. In the typical American scene, brides worry about the preparation of their gowns while their mothers worry about the guest list. The bride’s father worries about the cost of this rite of passage for his daughter. But the groom’s side has its own share of anxiety as well.

Today’s parable of the wedding feast of the king’s son pushes the anxiety level to maximum. It all starts quite simply when the king sends his limos to pick up the invited guests who have little interest in coming to the wedding. First mistake, don’t say ‘No’ to a king. The king tries a second time with a sense of urgency but the invitees have decided they have better things to do. Unfortunately, the whole scene takes a very bad turn when some of the king’s servants are abused and killed. So the king sends troops to kill the invitees and burn their city. At this point, you might be wondering if there is more going on here than a simple wedding, and you are right.

This particular parable moves on two levels. First, Jesus was the King’s son who came to invite his fellow Jews to embrace the Kingdom of heaven. But many did not find his invitation compelling enough to change their lives. Therefore the invitation was extended to others, namely, the Gentiles. This explanation appears to be confirmed by a similar banquet parable in Luke 14:15-24 in which the original invitees also lose their place to people brought in from the highways and byways.

In Matthew’s parable, the disproportionate destruction of the original invitees is on the parable’s second or historical level. This Gospel is referring to the actual devastation of Jerusalem by Roman troops in AD 70, a political intervention aimed at silencing local revolutionaries. That event sent shock waves through the Mideast and left its mark on the mindset of the early Christian community who interpreted the Romans as instruments of God’s judgment.

But wait, Matthew’s parable has still one more surprise when the king reprimands one of the newly arrived guests for not having a proper wedding garment. You might say, with some justification, the unfortunate man did not intend to go to a wedding when he was dragged in by the servants to fill the banquet hall! Again, you suspect something is amiss and so it is. Parables sometimes attract extra endings as in this case. A baptized Christian has been given spiritually the “wedding garment” of the Kingdom. Living faithfully as a follower of Jesus is our life’s mission until we arrive at the heavenly wedding banquet of the Lamb of God. There’s an invitation you should not neglect.

(Father Paul Zilonka, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Preaching Team of St. Paul of the Cross Province).

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