At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 20 : 1-16) narrates the parable of the workers called to the day by the owner of the vineyard. Through this story, Jesus shows us God’s surprising way of acting, represented by two attitudes of the master: the call and the reward .
First of all the call . Five times the owner of a vineyard goes out into the square and calls to work for him: at six, nine, twelve, three and five in the afternoon. The image of this owner who goes out on several occasions to the square looking for workers for his vineyard is touching. That master represents God who calls everyone and always calls, at any time. God acts like this today too: he continues to call anyone, at any time, to invite them to work in his Kingdom. This is the style of God, which we in turn are called to accept and imitate. He is not locked up in his world, but “goes out”: God is always going out, looking for us; he is not locked up: God goes out. He continually goes out in search of people, because he wants no one to be excluded from his plan of love.
Our communities are also called to leave the various types of “borders” that may exist, to offer everyone the word of salvation that Jesus came to bring. It is a question of opening up to horizons of life that offer hope to those stationed in the existential peripheries and who have not yet experienced, or have lost, the strength and light of the encounter with Christ. The Church must be like God: always outgoing; and when the Church is not going out, she falls ill with so many evils that we have in the Church. And why these diseasesin the Church? Because it is not out. It is true that when one goes out there is the danger of an accident. But a damaged Church is better, to go out, to proclaim the Gospel, than a Church sick from closure. God always goes out, because he is Father, because he loves. The Church must do the same: always going out.
The second attitude of the master, which represents that of God, is his way of rewardingworkers. How do you pay, God? The boss agrees for “a denarius” (v. 2) with the first workers hired in the morning. To those who are added later he says: “What is right I will give to you” (v. 4). At the end of the day, the owner of the vineyard orders to give everyone the same pay, that is, one denarius. Those who have worked since the morning are indignant and complain against the master, but he insists: he wants to give the maximum reward to everyone, even those who arrived last (vv. 8-15). God always pays the maximum: he does not remain half payment. Pay for everything. And here we understand that Jesus is not talking about work and just wages, which is another problem, but about the Kingdom of God and the goodness of the heavenly Father who continually comes out to invite and pays the maximum to everyone.
In fact, God behaves like this: he does not look at time and results, but at availability, he looks at the generosity with which we put ourselves at his service. His action is more than just , in the sense that it goes beyond justice and manifests itself in Grace . Everything is Grace. Our salvation is Grace. Our holiness is Grace. By giving us Grace, He gives us morethan we deserve. And then, whoever reasons with human logic, that is, that of merits acquired with one’s skill, is the first to find himself last. “But, I worked a lot, I did a lot in the Church, I helped a lot, and they pay me the same as what came last”. Let us remember who was the first canonized saint in the Church: the Good Thief. He “stole” Heaven at the last moment of his life: this is Grace, so is God. Even with all of us. Instead, those who try to think about their own merits fail; whoever humbly entrusts himself to the Father’s mercy, ultimately – like the Good Thief – finds himself first (cf. v. 16).
May Mary Most Holy help us feel every day the joy and amazement of being called by God to work for him, in his field which is the world, in his vineyard which is the Church. And to have his love, friendship with Jesus as the only reward.
[01086-EN.02] [Original text: Italian] – Taken from the Vatican News – Bulletin