GENEROSITY OF THE LANDOWNER

ST. PIUS X, POPE

Ezek. 34:1-11; Ps 23; Mt 20:1-16

God’s generosity to us

Our Lord teaches us about the mystery of the kingdom of heaven using the parable of the landowner. We can draw various lessons from the parable. The first lesson from the parable is God's commitment to his vineyard. The landowner, we read, went out at the break of the day to hire workers. The landowner’s concern and dedication to his vineyard made him commence from the early hour to seek labourers to work in his vineyard. This concern made him go out intermittently during the day to recruit more workers for the vineyard. So, the primary interest of the landowner is the good of his vineyard. We understand God’s interest in the salvation of souls. This understanding connects to Yahweh’s displeasure with the shepherds of Israel, expressed by Ezekiel the prophet. “Shepherds, the Lord says this: Trouble for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shepherds ought to feed their flock, yet you have fed on milk, you have dressed yourselves in wool, you have sacrificed the fattest sheep, but failed to feed the flock.” Yahweh's problem with the shepherds was their lack of commitment to the flock, which is also the vineyard of the Lord, as portrayed in the parable. As labourers, we must share God’s dedication to his vineyard or flock.

The second lesson from the parable is the landowner's concern for the labourers. This concern for the labourers is not so evident in the first reading about the shepherds, but it is there. Though the primary concern is the cultivation of the vineyard, the landowner is also interested in the labourers making their daily livelihood. This concern is part of the reason for intermittently seeking out idle labourers to employ them in his vineyard. “Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place and said to them, ‘You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.’ So, they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the nineth hour, he went out and did the same.” Even the people he found idle an hour before the end of the working hours, he still sent them to work in his vineyard to pay them a fair wage. He employed the last group for just an hour. Two things were important to the landowner:  the labourers doing good work in his vineyard, and that they get a fair wage. Likewise, Yahweh had a problem with the shepherd guiding his people, Israel. His anger with them was their preying on his sheep and lack of contentment with their wage. “Well then, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, I swear it—it is the Lord who speaks—since my flock has been looted and for lack of a shepherd is now the prey of any wild animal, since my shepherds have stopped bothering about my flock since my shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock.” For these, he decreed disaster for the shepherds.

The third lesson we get from the parable is the idea of the fair wage the landowner gives the labourers. The two concerns we have considered above reflect a better understanding of what constitutes a fair wage given by the landowner. He paid a fair wage to the first labourers he employed because it was a contract they had and was considered suitable for their day’s wage. This idea brings to the fore the notion of covenant that underscores God’s interaction with us. There was no formal contract between the landowner and the last sets of labourers, but he made them a promise and gave them his word: “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.” Here we have a clear expression of the landowner’s concern about the well-being of the labourers. A fair wage is a day’s wage, which would be sufficient for the needs of the labourers and their families. In the mystical sense, the shepherds are also part of God’s flock. Hence, he cares for them. What God rewards us for our faithfulness in his vineyard is what is sufficient for the day of eternity. That is God himself. Pope Pius X was an example of a good shepherd who employed every one of his talents to tend God’s flock in imitation of the Good Shepherd. His driving desire was to “restore all things in Christ.” He made the work of Christ his own, namely, the salvation of souls. Let us follow in his footsteps in doing everything for the love of Jesus Christ and fulfil his will in our lives.

Let us pray: O God, who to safeguard the Catholic faith and to restore all things in Christ, filled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude, graciously grant that, following his teaching and example, we may gain an eternal prize.