{"id":353,"date":"2017-09-25T00:45:32","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T00:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/?p=353"},"modified":"2017-09-25T00:45:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T00:45:32","slug":"homily-sunday-25-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/25\/homily-sunday-25-a\/","title":{"rendered":"HOMILY SUNDAY 25 \u2013 A"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Live Lives Worthy of the Gospel<\/em><\/p>\n

(Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145; Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16)<\/p>\n

**********************************************************<\/p>\n

As a young man, Tom was a landscaper in Calgary. When asked by his uncle how many men he had working for him, he replied that he had one steady employee. However, because the nature of landscaping is such that some days, a team of workers is needed, he took advantage of a labor pool that the city of Calgary had at that time. He could make one phone call and get as many workers as needed from a pool of men who could not find full time work but were available, eager and happy to work for the day.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Unloading grain “on the go”<\/p><\/div>\n

The readings today invite us to be like those men, available, eager, and happy to work for the Lord, and in doing so, live lives that are worthy of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

The parable that Jesus tells in today\u2019s gospel about the workers in the vineyard is difficult to understand and at first glance, seems unjust and unfair. After all, what employer in today\u2019s society would ever pay a worker a full day\u2019s wage if he or she had only worked one hour?<\/p>\n

To understand the deeper meaning of this parable, and to \u201cget\u201d the lesson that Jesus is trying to teach us, we have to look at the parable more closely and study its implications more deeply.<\/p>\n

St. Matthew tells us that men are \u201cstanding idle,\u201d then that they are just \u201cstanding around,\u201d and finally, \u201cno one has hired us.\u201d Just to hear these phrases is enough to dampen one\u2019s spirit. They are a suggestion that understanding this parable involves a theology of work.<\/p>\n

Over the ages, the Church has always esteemed labor as a source of respect, creativity, esteem and satisfaction. Popes have written encyclicals on the topic of labor. Work can be seen in itself as holy, a contribution to society – a much greater value than idleness.<\/p>\n

The phrases \u201cstanding idle\u2019\u201d, \u201cstanding around,\u201d and \u201cno one has hired us,\u201d are not very exciting or positive statements. They express a sense that lack of work and idleness is a source of boredom, a reality that kills the spirit of a person who wants to live a full life, a situation intolerable to some, demeaning to most. Those who had work were the fortunate ones. There was no need to envy those who came late. They were the ones who missed out on the day\u2019s meaningful activity and had to put up with the boredom that inactivity involves, even if they were paid the same monetary sum.<\/p>\n

There is a call to conversion here, to metanoia<\/em>, to change our attitude towards work and inactivity, if we are to understand this parable and what Jesus is trying to teach us. An attitude is our basic way of seeing, feeling, thinking and acting in the world, and we need to change our attitude towards work.<\/p>\n

The way the prophet Isaiah puts it in the first reading, we are to \u201cforsake our ways and our thoughts, to return to God, to seek God, who will give forgiveness and pardon.\u201d That pardon, he continues, can come to us at any time \u2013 even at the last minute. Fortunate are those who receive it early; who actually live the experience of forgiveness and intimacy with God throughout their whole lives, rather than just at the last day or hour of their lives.<\/p>\n

St. Paul in the second reading to the Philippians states bluntly: \u201cTo live is Christ!\u201d We are to be living in Christ, who is living in us. We are invited to be workers in the vineyard of the Lord. What an honor. What a privilege and blessing. What could be greater than that? And as workers in the vineyard, we are to live lives worthy of the gospel.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The young Therese<\/p><\/div>\n

St. Therese of Lisieux is one who understood this gospel. A cloistered contemplative nun who never left her monastery, she had a heart that wanted to embrace the whole world. Trying to discern how she could do that, she finally intuited that she would be one who would be \u201clove,\u201d who would be love for the whole world in the heart of the Church. In the end, she, a cloistered young nun, became the patron of missions for the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"

St Therese of Lisieux<\/p><\/div>\n

The way she lived out her vocation as a worker in the vineyard was to do the smallest thing with great love, and to love her sisters, even those most difficult to love, with all her heart, giving them the impression that they were the best of friends. She would be the first to feel pity for those who do not understand this, who think that doing their own will, living selfish lives, being lazy or deliberately unproductive is what life is all about. And she would be the first to rejoice when such a person finally would have a conversion experience, confess their wrongdoing, even on their deathbed, and come to the Lord.<\/p>\n

Most priests, religious and pastoral workers in the Church get great meaning, fulfillment, satisfaction and even joy out of their ministry. They would find it difficult to give it up. In 1987, I teamed up with Ed and Angie Mihalicz of Beauval to form the Keewatin Renewal Team (KRT). That proved to be a priceless, joy-filled and fulfilling period of ministry for us.\u00a0 We toured the archdiocese putting on parish renewals, Search retreats for youth, and Christopher Leadership courses. The renewals involved a lot of singing, fellowship, laughter, scripture proclamation, talks, reflection questions, small and large group sharing, homework, and a ritual to close the evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ed, Angie and + Sylvain with their lifetime Christopher pins<\/p><\/div>\n

The sessions were dynamic, touched participants deeply, led to much renewal and personal and communal healing. The youth who participated in the retreats grew personally and experienced personal and family healing. And those who had leadership potential in their parishes benefited from the skills and confidence the leadership courses gave them.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Flin Flon, Manitoba CLC grads and team (including Fr.John Zunti OMI) 1987<\/p><\/div>\n

We still look back on that experience as some of the best years of our lives. To have taken that ministry away from us and offered us no work at all, even with pay, would have been a debilitating deprivation for us. We truly felt like we were workers in the vineyard of the Lord, and quite confident we were living lives worthy of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is itself a \u201cwork\u201d of the Spirit. It is called the liturgy of the Eucharist, liturgia<\/em>, a Greek word that technically means, \u201cwork,\u201d the work of the people.<\/p>\n

The Eucharist is holy work, a work that involves all present, for all have a ministry within the celebration, whether it be presiding, reading, singing, serving, ushering, taking up the collection, playing an instrument, leading the choir, and above all, praying and worshipping with all our hearts.<\/p>\n

May this celebration strengthen us to work in the Lord\u2019s vineyard with joy, and above all, to live lives that are worthy of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Live Lives Worthy of the Gospel (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145; Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16) ********************************************************** As a young man, Tom was a landscaper in Calgary. When asked by his uncle how many men he had working for him, he replied that he had one steady employee. However, because the nature of landscaping is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}