Are you being shortchanged?

A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, “Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.” He said in reply, “I will not,” but afterwards changed his mind and went.

We can take our Gospel today to be about conversion. After painting the parable above, Jesus connects the first son to tax collectors and prostitutes who have changed their ways to follow the Lord’s will.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you care about your faith and that you are already on the right path. If you have already converted, of what use is the parable to you?

Conversion is not just a one-time act. It is something you do all the time. All the time, the Lord is telling us, “Go out and work in the vineyard today.” All the time, we are invited to respond. All the time. And if this happens all the time, perhaps we can also take our Gospel today to be about mission.

I remember being given the privilege of journeying with a dying man named Manuel. His doctors had already told him that all they could do for him was help manage his pain. His cancer had spread, and no operation or chemotherapy would be able to reverse his condition. I saw his condition and knew his time was coming fast. And he felt it, too. Understandably, he was restless and afraid. I went through the whole gamut of things you could say to help a dying man accept his fate: “You are not alone.” “This will not be the end; it will be just the beginning.” “Unite your sufferings with the Lord’s.” What finally gave Manuel peace was: “You still have a mission.” That is how we celebrated the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, not as part of the last rites but as a sacrament of vocation. My hands were anointed with oil when I was ordained as a priest. Manuel accepted his own anointing with oil in the same spirit - he was being strengthened for a new mission.

What mission was this? Manuel himself told me: His daughter, who was taking care of him day and night, had lost all faith because of his sickness and suffering. She had prayed fervently for a miracle for Manuel, but when no miracle was given, she gave up on God. The dying father’s last mission was to bring his daughter back to the faith  not by preaching to her but by his silent witness of going through his pain and yet still holding on, even clinging more tightly, to the Lord. The hospital bed was the vineyard to which the Lord had sent him. 

To what vineyard is the Lord sending you out today? Sometimes, this will mean a major decision in your life: To what course will you apply in college? What job will you take? What vocation will you pursue? Is it time to risk being in a relationship again? Is it time to end one that is going nowhere? Sometimes, going out to the vineyard will mean a seemingly simple task that nevertheless demands much from us: Reaching out to someone who has not spoken to you for the longest time, swallowing your pride and admitting you were wrong, or finally deciding to let go of your hurts and forgive.

God sends us out to particular vineyards all the time. We can choose to say yes like the second son, but really do nothing about this yes. We can choose to say no. And what does God do when we say no? In our parable today, the master of the vineyard did not scream at the first son and throw him out of the house, calling him an ingrate or a good-for-nothing wretch (which would have been like a dramatic scene from one of our telenovelas today). The parable is silent about the father’s reaction, and I think we can safely say that the father just waited silently for his sons to follow his will. No drama. No thick laying on of guilt. Just a patient and forgiving wait. “Take your time. I am just here.”

So maybe we should all just take our time, enjoy our lives, and put off “going to the vineyard” until the last minute. God is always forgiving anyway, right?

Here is where we can connect last week’s Gospel to today’s. Last Sunday, we heard the story of a group of workers in another vineyard. Some worked from dawn. Some worked for half a day. Some worked for only an hour. But in the end, all received the same payment. Who got shortchanged? Sino ang lugi? Most of us would point to those who worked for the whole day and even to those who worked for half a day. I would point to a different group. Even though they received the same pay, I think the people who worked for only an hour received the least. I don’t think they were lucky at all. Sila ang lugi. Why? Because this is God’s vineyard and God’s work we are talking about. Being about the Father’s business is a great opportunity. The more opportunities you get to do God’s work, the more blessed you are.

Do we see responding to God as a reward in itself, or do we see it as a burden imposed on us? Reading the story of Manuel who was still being given a new mission on his deathbed, did you find yourself protesting and thinking of God as such a slave driver? Or did you, like Manuel, find yourself praising God and thanking him for his generosity?

St. Augustine laments, “Late have I loved Thee.” Whether you respond to the Lord on your deathbed or in the prime of your youth, it will always be late. Every moment we spend not serving the Lord is wasted. Sayang ang panahon na hindi natin kasama sa pag-aani ang Panginoon. Tayo lang ang nalulugi.

Fr. Francis joined the Society of Jesus at the age of 22. Still, he thinks this was already late. If you would like help in discerning to what vineyard God is sending you, consider attending “Options,” a free discernment talk for young single male professionals, on September 28. Text 0917-JESUITS for more information. For feedback on this column, email [email protected].