September 24, 2023 (25th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

“Life’s Not Fair – and That’s a Good Thing”

by Fr. Dominic DeLay, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

How do you like Jesus’ parable today? Sounds like the kingdom of heaven isn’t fair, doesn’t it? And if there’s anything we don’t like, it’s when things aren’t fair. You know what’s not fair? When I was a kid, my brother, sister, and I were told we wouldn’t get a bike until we were seven. Well, my older brother turned seven and got his bike. But so did my sister and I. What about when Stanford students are assigned a group project, one person contributes very little, and everyone gets the same grade? Is it fair that some people are born wealthy and some people, no matter how hard they work, are poor?

It’s tempting to take this story as Jesus’ economic platform. In fact, the church teaches that everyone deserves dignified work and a living wage, enough to provide for their family. That denarius that all those workers got paid, whether they worked all day or one hour, was considered a living wage. But if this is Jesus’ economic platform, is he also promoting the idea that the wealthy can do whatever they want with their money, paying their workers a living wage or not, according to their whim? The church teaches rather that “Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor” (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

It’s true that Jesus consistently warns about wealth and lifts up the poor. But today’s story isn’t about money. It’s about God’s economy of love, God’s prodigal, lavish, unfair, undeserved love, care, and mercy toward us all, whether we turn to God early or late or not at all. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us today, God tells us: “… my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways...” It’s unclear why the latecomers didn’t get hired earlier. It’s implied that the landowner didn’t see them, yet they say they’ve been waiting all day to be hired – and waiting and begging for work is the hardest work of all. Were they too old or weak to be hired until the landowner got desperate, afraid the harvest wouldn’t be completed in time? Regardless, the landowner pays everyone what they need in order to take care of their family, at least for that day.

God cares for us without our earning it, and the kingdom of heaven – that is, the kingdom of God, which begins even now – calls us to be rashly lavish with love as well. Today is the Catholic Church’s 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees. How are we to respond to latecomers to our nation and others? In his message for today, Pope Francis first of all makes it clear that it’s wrong that we allow people to become economically or politically desperate enough to flee their home countries. How does their home country need to change, and how do other countries help? Are we willing to end whatever practices we may have of taking advantage of other nations and their resources? Pope Francis also makes it clear that, when people do become migrants or refugees, we must find ways to care for them. He writes:

…we are called to show maximum respect for the dignity of each migrant; this entails accompanying and managing waves of migration as best we can, constructing bridges and not walls, expanding channels for a safe and regular migration…the important thing is that there always be a community ready to welcome, protect, promote and integrate everyone, without distinctions and without excluding anyone.

Not surprisingly, Pope Francis takes the opportunity to invoke synodality:

The synodal path that we have undertaken as a Church leads us to see in those who are most vulnerable – among whom are many migrants and refugees – special companions on our way, to be loved and cared for as brothers and sisters. Only by walking together will we be able to go far and reach the common goal of our journey.

The synodal path is about all of us walking together. I think of today’s special latecomers, new students here today for the first time who might be wondering what the heck synodal means. Don’t worry: most of us are still trying to figure it out. We don’t even know how to pronounce it: is it sy-NOH-duhl or SY-nuh-duhl? What matters, though, isn’t how we say it but that we do it. We especially need you new students to be part of your Catholic Community at Stanford. Who are you? What are you gifts? What are your needs, hopes, pains? It’s all part of our journey together. Some of you new students are LGBTQ Catholics, refugees of hate, risking coming today with the hope that this is a place where you will be welcomed and accepted for who you are. The answer is yes, not only welcomed and accepted, but also needed. Synodality requires all voices, minds, hearts, and bodies. We walk together, not in lockstep, but in unity of heart.

Maybe some of you students here today aren’t so new to Stanford but are new to our community or haven’t walked with us for some time. Perhaps you, somewhat like the latecomers in today’s gospel story, have been hanging out in White Plaza for a long time and were only finally invited here or finally got curious enough or desperate enough. The building is hard to miss, but who knows what goes on inside, right? Is it safe? Your Catholic Community embraces you with joy. The rest of us desperately need you to walk with us. Otherwise, we won’t know which way God is leading us.

Maybe some of you students or year-rounders aren’t new members of this community but haven’t yet jumped in. You haven’t registered. You haven’t yet dared to drop in on a small group and give it a try. You haven’t asked God if it’s you that’s being called to serve at the liturgy as a greeter, reader, singer, and so on. How does God call you to share yourself with others? It’s not too late. It’s never too late. You are needed and wanted.

The thing is, we’re all latecomers, aren’t we? Those of us who are early to serve are often latecomers to prayer, not heeding God’s call to rest and trust. We all forget to turn to God and to each other for help, for mercy, for the love we need. It’s not too late. It’s never too late.

We’re all latecomers. And we’re all the landowner from today’s gospel story. We’ve been given so much and are called to share what we’ve been given, to share our talents, our energies, ourselves with others.

The kingdom of heaven is like a group of Catholics and their friends who come together on Sunday, some early, some late, for an hour’s work, listening together with synodal ears to God’s word of love, praying together with synodal hearts over the bread and wine, processing together with synodal feet, in no particular order, to God’s bountiful table, receiving the unearned pay of daily bread that is the very life of God, and going forth, walking together, to share that life with others.