(Liturgical Year A - 25th Sunday)

In the Entrance Antiphon today we are reminded that the Lord is ‘…Saviour of all people…’ who, unlike even the best intentioned earthly friend, will be ‘…always there…’ and, very significantly, is unlimited in His ability to help us through life. We are expected, of course, to actively seek and use these opportunities to attain Salvation!
 
Isaiah (55:6-9), very wisely, urges us to seize every opportunity offered us by our Creator while we live on Earth, and ‘Seek the Lord while He is still to be found’. Until we draw our final breath we can, should we sin, repent and be assured of God’s Forgiveness; not that we should gamble our eternity on living apart from God and ‘getting in at the last moment’. God, who is so superior to His creatures, nevertheless leaves the final choice with us! As the Responsorial Psalm (From Ps. 144), recalls to mind, God ‘…is close to all who call Him….” How aware are we of our constant need to examine our conscience and make sure that we are not living in ways that take us further away from God?
 
Saint Paul (Phil. 1:20-24, 27), while looking with longing towards his entry into Heaven, acknowledges that, while he lives on earth, he has a vital role (as does each one of us) to play in the Salvation of Mankind. Paul’s ‘rule of thumb’ for the here and now, which will stand us in good stead when we die, is to keep from anything in our everyday life which will set us off in an opposing direction to God. Our Saviour, knowing our weaknesses, has left us the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through which we can, as long as life lasts, keep close to or even return to God. God, who clearly sees our exact knowledge of good and evil and our intentions, cannot lose any soul which, in all honesty, has striven to be faithful to Him.

In the Gospel (Mt.20:1-16) Jesus, in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, very clearly emphasises our Creator’s absolute right to determine the reward promised to all who faithfully follow His Way. Each one of us, whatever the proponents of various theories of ‘superiority’ and ‘inferiority’ throughout the ages might have decided, is equal before God. Our desire and our capacity to enjoy our eternity with God will be fully satisfied; no one will ‘go short’ or feel ‘deprived’. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, when a small child, asked her mother (Saint Zélie Martin) about our capacity for God and was shown two very different sized containers, each filled to the brim with water; as Zélie explained to her daughter, just as each vessel was completely filled, God fills us with His Grace according to our created capacity and our openness to it. We shall be as happy as God has created us to be; there will be no envious glances in Heaven, just total fulfilment, wrapped in God’s Embrace. All that is required of us is that we use, to the best of our ability, the talents and graces that God has seen fit to give to us as individuals. Reading ‘The Story of a Soul’, Saint Thérèse’s autobiography, will provide a wonderful and inspiring insight for anyone who seeks guidance on such matters.

Stained glass depicting the Parable of the Vineyard. Designed by the Flemish artist Jan Rombouts (c.1475-1535) in c.1525-30 and currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – one of a set of twelve scenes from The Life of Christ