Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 9/20
Dear friends,
While reading today’s Gospel in my prayer, I cannot but think of myself as a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. And it has particularly drawn my attention toward the landowner who, starting at dawn - and throughout the day - hired labourers for his vineyard. I also could not stop thinking if during this time of COVID 19 I have been working in the vineyard of the Lord much more or much less than the previous years. With this, I’d like to think of how and why God calls us to work for him. God calls us all the time. From dawn until dusk, He wants us to work for the kingdom of heaven. To work for Him is not to be slaves to please God but rather it is to please ourselves, for God himself is our reward. Being called is already a reward: to be able to work in the Lord’s vineyard, to be with him and before him, to collaborate in his work of salvation. It is a priceless reward, for “the Lord is my light and salvation!” In God’s freedom, He wants us to give his love freely and wants us to receive it freely as well. Who else other than Christ has shown us how to receive the Father’s love through being the last one – for the last will be the first and the first will be last. “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Cf. Philippians 2:6-11).
During these times, I think God continues to ask us to heed his call, to collaborate with the Holy Spirit in building his kingdom here among us, just as we pray every day “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be don on earth as it is in heaven.” In finding this joy of working for God’s kingdom, let us look at St. Paul who shares us his experience of being a labourer for God. In all we do, St. Paul encourages us to magnify Christ in our life, “for to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” Let as ask St. Paul that he may intercede for us to respond to Christ’s invitation to work with parrusia for and with him and that we may “worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27).
In Christ,
Nelson Villamor