Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2020
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Matthew 20:1-16
Audio file
This parable about the workers in the vineyard could also be called the parable of the benevolent landowner. It teaches us that our relationship with God is not the ordinary relationship of employee and employer. It is not a relationship in which God pays us exactly and exclusively what we have earned or what we have deserved.
God gives us far more than we have earned–far more than we deserve. God is the God of generosity, not the God of strict and equal justice.
We don’t deserve grace or the Eucharist or the Scriptures or membership in the Church. It’s all gift–all an expression of God’s generosity. This parable invites us to be mindful of the benevolence of God, and to be grateful.
