by Fr. Tommy Lane
If Jesus’ parable today (Matt 20:1-16) were about employment and wages, we would be perplexed as those who clock in late, even as late as the last hour, get the same wage as those who clocked in at dawn. But Jesus’ parable is not about employment and wages; he uses the example of employment and wages to teach about the kingdom of God—that it is never too late to respond to God. In the parable, no matter how late in the day someone works in the vineyard, the wage is the same: life with God. There is always a welcome from God, a welcome from Jesus, no matter how late in life we allow God into our lives.
The landowner went out to hire laborers five times: at dawn, at about nine o’clock (the third hour in Matthew’s Greek; twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night, see John 11:9), at noon (the sixth hour in Matthew’s Greek), at three o’clock (the ninth hour in Matthew’s Greek) and about five o’clock (the eleventh hour in Matthew’s Greek). The parable shows us that God is merciful and welcoming, no matter how late we accept the invitation to allow God into our lives. That is also what we see in the lives of those who became Catholic and found Jesus at different times during their lives.
We are those who were hired to work in the vineyard at dawn because growing up in this part of the world, we were baptized a short time after birth and have been following Jesus since then. Elsewhere in the world we would be described as “cradle Catholics,” Catholics since infancy, to distinguish us from the many converts to Catholicism later in life.
At nine o’clock (the third hour) the landowner went out again to hire for his vineyard. This is like those who met Jesus early in life though not as early as infancy. One example is Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. The family became Catholic when Tolkien was eight years old. His mother was a huge influence on his Catholic faith. He wrote, “it is not to everybody that God grants so easy a way to his great gifts as he did to Hilary [his brother] and myself, giving us a mother who killed herself with labor and trouble to ensure us keeping the faith.” (H. Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: Autobiography p39)
At noon (the sixth hour) the landowner went out again to hire workers for his vineyard. Edith Stein was raised in the Jewish faith but in the summer of 1921, she read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and said, “That is the truth” and was baptized and became Catholic on January 1, 1922, at the age of thirty. She later entered the Carmelite order taking the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and in August 1942 was sent to Auschwitz and killed seven days later. (L. Hanley Duquin, A Century of Catholic Converts p59-60)
At around 3 o’clock (the ninth hour) the landowner went out again to hire workers for his vineyard. G.K. Chesterton, the British journalist, lecturer and author wrote many books, and articles. In 1911, the family was surprised to say the least when his brother Cecil became Catholic. Chesterton had been leaning in that direction also but was holding off due to his wife. He and his wife went to the Holy Land and returned via Rome and in 1922 Chesterton decided he could wait no longer and became Catholic at the age of forty-eight. A priest friend, Fr. John O’Connor, received him into the Church, the priest on whom he modelled his Father Brown detective stories. (Duquin, A Century of Catholic Converts p55-56)
Finally in the parable, at
around five o’clock (the eleventh hour) the landowner went out again
to hire workers for his vineyard. Some people became Catholic at the
end of life or even in their deathbed. At the age of 70, the
American actor John Wayne, well-known for his role in Western
movies, converted to Catholicism. There has been speculation for
years that George Washington became a Catholic shortly before he
died because he had a picture of Our Lady.
In all these examples, we see the landowner, Jesus, going out at all hours of the day to call people into his kingdom. There is another one we could think of: Saint Paul. In his late thirties, after witnessing the killing of the first martyr, St. Stephen, he was going to Damascus to arrest and terrorize Christians there when he met Jesus on the road and he too entered the Lord’s vineyard to labor in it. It became a labor of love for him as we heard him write in our second reading, “For to me life is Christ.” (Phil 1:22) After his conversion his whole life revolved around Jesus. That explains why twice elsewhere in his letters he encourages us to have the same mind as Jesus, to think like Jesus (Phil 2:5; 1 Cor 2:16) It is a lifelong task for us, as we convert more and more, to have the same mind as Jesus, to think like Jesus. So although we answered the Lord’s call to labor in his vineyard at dawn, really even at the last hour we are still clocking in and learning what answering the Lord’s call to us means.
It is good that God is merciful, merciful even if we clock in late, because we are all still learning what it means to properly answer the invitation to work in the Lord’s vineyard. But we know one thing: it is never too late to respond to God. There is always a welcome from God, from Jesus, no matter how late in life we allow God into our lives.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2023
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Year A
Life is Christ: a gift in the vineyard 2020
It’s never too late 2017
Called to labor in God’s vineyard 2014
Why be envious because God is generous?
Related: The joy of the Gospel 2021
We do not compare ourselves with others 2016
the last being first: Curé of Ars