Alumnae Day Reflection
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
God’s ways are not our ways. This is a common theme in Scripture. It is stated quite clearly today in the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and it is played out in our Gospel passage. In the first reading, we hear God say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…” and “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”
Over the past few Sundays, our Gospels have shown us that God thinks and acts differently than do we humans. Right after Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, Jesus tells the disciples that he will have to suffer and die. Peter’s response? “God forbid it, Lord!” To which Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan… you are not thinking as God does but as human beings do.” Last week’s passage teaches us that forgiving a brother or sister seven times isn’t enough… we are called to forgive without limits, as God forgives us.
And now, today, we hear the story of the landowner who goes out looking for laborers to work in his vineyard. Several times throughout the day, he returns to the marketplace and hires additional workers. All seems well and good with that. The first workers, who worked all day, assume that they will receive more than those who only worked an hour or so, but that’s not what happens. Each person, regardless of the time of day hired, receives the usual daily wage. And the first hired are furious. Surely, they have worked more hours… it would only be just that they receive more than those “ne’er do wells” who were standing idle and only showed up to work at the last hour! But that’s not the case.
The story illustrates the landowner who sees that each person needs a daily wage. The wage provides enough for the person to eat, to provide for family, to care for self and others. In applying the story to God and the final judgment, we are challenged to believe that we will not be rewarded simply for our longevity as believers. Rather, God is always waiting for us to turn and be converted, no matter how long it takes. The last are first, and the first… if they’re not careful… will become last. We can’t take for granted the fact that we have been baptized and that we go to church and receive the sacraments. No, we are still called to lives of conversion, to turn our lives over and over again to God. Conversion isn’t a one-time event with a “get out of jail card” allowing us to go about our lives without concern for others. The Gospel call is one that challenges us to continue to tend to our own sinful tendencies and failures, and to attend to others, to invite them into the kingdom of God.
“Seek the Lord,” the prophet calls out… “Call him while he is near.” “Turn to the Lord for mercy, to God, who is generous in forgiving.” Seek, call, turn. This is the life we profess to lead as Christians. Specifically, as Benedictines, we daily hear and respond to the call to seek God. We begin each day by asking God to open our lips in order to offer praise and to cry out our needs and the needs of those in our world. Each day, we commit ourselves to turn, again and again, to face God in order that we might become the face of God for others.
Today, we gather with the alumnae of our Academy. Those of us who were students in the Academy can probably think of our school years as times in which we were challenged to seek, call, and turn. We learned how to live with those who were not our family at an early age. We had to learn to navigate living closely with others as teenagers and to deal with times of homesickness along with all the normal challenges of high school years. I remember the motto that hung in the entry way of Madonna Hall: “The goal, womanhood. The means, dignity. The effect, loveliness.”
I think that’s just another way of stating what we could each say as a motto of life: “The goal, to be the person God has created me to be. The means, dignity…treating myself and others with dignity and respect, treating others as I want to be treated and as I would treat God. The effect, loveliness… to become the face of God for others.”
We can’t transform ourselves. We need grace. We need God to work within us, but we do need to cooperate with that grace. The responsorial psalm assures us that God is always near to us when we call, that God is merciful, kind, and compassionate.
It is our responsibility to call on God and to allow grace to transform us. Today, let us not begrudge those who come to the Kingdom of God later than others. Rather, let us continue to seek and call upon God, and then turn, day after day, allowing the presence of God to transform us so that we, in turn, may be the presence of God for others and for our world.