By F. Luis Casasus, General Superior of idente missionaries
Commentary on the Sunday Gospel of 29-9-2017, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Book of Isaiah 55:6-9; Letter to the Philippians 1:20c-24.27a; Saint Matthew 20:1-16a)
It is not easy to live and to work in community. Anyone who grew up with siblings realizes that brothers and sisters fight. The first story in the Bible about brothers is that of Cain and Abel and how Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy. The narratives of Jacob and Esau also depict sibling jealousy. Living together is not easy. Most of us are intent on having things our way, and when that fails, we burn with envy, anger and resentment. Often we get so consumed by thoughts of our own needs that we find it impossible to remember those of anyone else.
This is universal and happens in every age and culture. As an illustration, we can cite an old “parable” in the Taoist tradition:
Hua Zi lived in the country of Sung. He was suffering from the illness of forgetfulness. Once he left home, he forgot to return home. He only remembered the present and forgot the past. He often asked, “Where am I now?” People would tell him, “This is your home.” Sometimes, he would tell his wife, “You’re so pretty! What is your name?” She would say, “I am your wife!”
Hua Zi’s wife was very worried and sad about Hua Zi’s illness. She made a promise that whoever could cure Hua Zi’s forgetfulness; she would give him half of their wealth.
A man tried all sorts of methods to cure Hua Zi and finally succeeded in curing Hua Zi. However, Hua Zi became very excitable and often lost his temper. He drove his wife away from home and beat his son for no reason.
People asked him, “You’re cured but how comes that you have changed so much?” Hua Zi said, “When I could not remember a thing, I felt calm and at peace. The sky and the world could disappear for all I cared. I didn’t have a worry in my heart. But now I’ve got back my memory, my consciousness of life and death, gain and loss, joy and anger, happiness and sorrow has all returned. I cannot forget, even for a short time, these heavy burdens of life. I feel so very vexed.”
Why were some workers in the vineyard so unhappy? This was just because they remembered all too well that they started the day’s work earlier than the other workers. They thought that the late-comers did not deserve a pay as high as the usual daily wage because only they had toiled all day. To them, it was unjust if all were given the same treatment.
Our hearts are full of what is right and wrong and all sorts of disputes because we are too preoccupied with plotting and calculating. The result does not only make us sad, it also makes other people feel sorry.
Human justice is geared towards self-preservation. Laws are meant to protect the rights of the individual, especially his property and his personal rights. The focus is on the self and the individual. Justice is therefore drawing a boundary between the individual and another.
In the first reading, God makes it clear: my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways. Human justice is far from the meaning of divine justice. Today, we have the example of St Paul who has shown to us the true meaning of justice and love. Strictly speaking, he would have preferred to be with Christ, since he had discovered that being with Christ meant everything. Yet, he chose to stay, not because he loved Christ less but because he loved us. This is what divine justice is all about. Instead of seeking for his rights, he gave up his rights for others. So too is the justice of God. Christ gave Himself up for us in our stead because He loves us and wants to save us.
Friends strive to overcome all barriers to their unity. They study each other to find frustrating breaks in unity. Many of our acts disunite us from each other, frustrating the unity we so deeply desire. As we advance in love, we overcome more and more of these splits. It is as if we burn more closely together. All this expresses the positive results of love. But we must admit that growing in love is painful. Some people quit loving because of that pain. You have your own examples of pain. Your conflict was so simple, so silly, but so painful, that it often ends love. That end is even more painful. Remembering it can prevent us from trying to love again.
Today’s Gospel speaks of envy and jealousy, two passions we all feel from time to time. But if they are allowed to become dominant in our lives, they warp our perspectives, keep us from realizing our personal potential and may lead us into destructive behavior. Without question, jealousy and envy impede our growth to spiritual maturity.
Envy and jealousy become devices of the devil, and it can rob us of bearing good fruit. On the other hand, jealousy makes us unwilling to share and often results in a total loss of that which is not shared. Jealousy is a fear of being displaced by a rival in affection or favor. To be jealous is to be anxiously suspicious or vigilant. Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? (Proverbs 27: 4). The implication is that jealousy is hidden. It corrupts our motives, thoughts, and actions. To make matters worse, the object of that jealousy may be unaware of it and therefore be unable to deal with it.
Envy is defined as a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by another’s desirable possessions or qualities, accompanied by a strong desire to have them for oneself. The Old Testament reminds us: A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones (Proverbs 14: 30).
We may believe that Envy and Jealousy as “little sins”, but they are as destructive to the soul as are the more shocking sins of adultery, murder or theft. They can be described as little foxes destroying the kingdom of heaven:
Catch the foxes for us, those little foxes that spoil vineyards, now that our vineyards are in bloom! (Song of Solomon 2:15).
We must be careful. Let us not be like the Pharisee of Jesus’ day who boasted of being more righteous than other sinners. This comparison game is nothing new. Cain compared himself to Abel. Jesus’ disciples also struggled with this (John 21:23). One way or another we all have to fight against the impulse of playing the comparison game, We all, at times, are guilty of this terrible disease of the heart, but this ought not to be. We must examine our hearts and purge out both envy and jealousy. Like many other emotions, envy is a symptom of other, underlying issues that need to be resolved: being overly concerned with personal rights, taking other people’s success personally, desiring selfish gain, yearning for status and achievement, and an inability to share.
Here is a diagnosis of our father Founder:
A temptation can emerge which could lead us to look to ourselves so that people enter our wave, in our conversation, to realize (…) its greater or lesser degree of intelligence. This has been a vice of religious orders, one of the motivations leading to commit very serious and chronical violations of charity. It was to pay attention to one another in a way that a breeding ground for envy was created, judging and talking about this one or that one, in relation to their greater or lesser success in their studies…(MAY 30, 1978).
In the same vein, John Paull II says on religious life in common:
In view of the crucial importance of community life, it should be noted that its quality is affected, positively or negatively, by two kinds of diversity in the institute: that of its members and that of its works. These are the diversities of Saint Paul’s image of the Body of Christ or the Council’s image of the pilgrim People of God. In both, the diversity is a variety of gifts which is meant to enrich the one reality. The criterion for accepting both members and works in a religious institute, therefore, is the building of unity. The practical question is: Do God’s gifts in this person or project or group make for unity and deepen communion? If they do, they can be welcomed. If they do not, then no matter how good the gifts may seem to be in themselves or how desirable they may appear to some members, they are not for this particular institute.(1983).
Pope Francis speaks of life together as “a sacred pilgrimage.” His view of life with family, friends, or in community is of a journeying together into the Mystery. The metaphor of pilgrimage suggests that we are not standing still or staying in the same place, but we are rather together moving more and more deeply into the fullness of life that God desires for us and that Jesus promises. This is the idente way of living. Francis says that it is “the mystique of living together” that makes our life such a pilgrimage. And, for him, it is living with an openness to “a culture of encounter” that makes of our living together a continual opening to Mystery and to the Divine call at its heart. Is it not that what we call education of the ecstasy?
Pope Francis also said:
We can appreciate the suffering created by unemployment and the lack of steady work, as reflected in Jesus’ parable of the laborers forced to stand idly in the town square and his personal experience of meeting people suffering from poverty and hunger. Sadly, these realities are present in many countries today, where the lack of employment opportunities takes its toll on the serenity of family life. (March 19, 2016).
But the message of the parable has a deep anthropological dimension: We all seek to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in the human family; like Christ, the Good Shepherd. This is more than a generous act; to give up your life represents the only chance to give our existence a meaning, to make it worthy of being lived. This is what the laborers were waiting for in the marketplace. And giving them a way of achieving this, Jesus confirms his claim: I am the way, the truth and life. Laying down my life for my neighbor is stronger than my passions and stronger than the temptations that assault me.
But admitting that the fasting of our passions is a painful and arduous task, still we know that we have always at hand the means, and even, if we seriously apply for it, the easy means of overcoming them. Grace is the powerful instrument, is far stronger than our passions, and this is always granted to our requests. It is the property of grace to change our inclinations, to exalt our weakness into strength and our timidity into courage. This is the advantage of the believer: he is never alone.
We are made in God’s image, but our character is too different from His. We need to lay down our lives so that God’s character can take shape. Our flesh, our soul, is the key obstacle in the transformation process. If we are still clinging to the world, God’s character cannot develop. The development of our character produces integrity; faithfulness and obedience to do the will of God. If we are made in the image of God our focus and time really can (and must) be used to please our Father. You have to give up your life to gain it (Lk 9:24).
If you still have a childlike heart, you will probably draw some lesson from the following tale.
A simple shepherd was appointed a prime minister of Persia. The King of Persia appointed him to that position because of his faithfulness. The other cabinet ministers were angry. They who came from upper class, they who had higher education, they were master politicians, surely one of them should have been the prime minister! And out of jealously they conspired to bring some sort of accusation against the king’s own choice for a prime minister. They began to watch the prime minister very closely. They watched his movements. They watched his comings and goings. They found nothing objectionable. Except, that once a week he would enter a little room which he had kept locked and would shut himself in that room for an hour each week. The noblemen saw a sinister reason behind this action so they informed the monarch of this unusual behavior. They told the king that they were certain that in the room the prime minister was hoarding all the king’s precious possessions that he must have stolen. The king doubted their story .but nonetheless he gave them permission to break in. and search the room. To their utter amazement the only thing they found in that locked room was a small bundle containing a dilapidated pair of shoes and an old robe. When he was brought before the king the prime minister was asked why he had kept these two items in the locked up room. His reply was very simple I wore these things when I was a shepherd .and once a week I go into the room and look at them lest I should forget what I once was and how unworthy I am of all the kindness and honor that your majesty has bestowed upon me.
What a contrast is this attitude with the attitude of the full day laborers in the Parable of the Vineyard.
We must be grateful for our calling. We have nothing to boast about. Realizing God’s mercy, we must therefore respond to that grace of God by giving ourselves to the vocation, which we have been called to. So the Gospel today asks, why should we be envious of God’s generosity to others when He has been so generous towards us?
If we are able to do certain things better than others, we should be humble and not be self-righteous. If not for the grace of God, we too would have fallen. To be able to live out the divine justice of God in our lives, we must be touched by the prior grace of God. Unless we have experienced and become conscious of His mercy, we cannot love in that manner.
We should learn from John the Baptist who refused to envy Christ. He knew that the success of Christ was his own success (John 3:30-35).
He went through a situation that could have caused him to be discontent with his ministry and become extremely jealous of the ministry of Jesus Christ. John’s attitude, however, was completely the reverse. He was rather content with what God had given him and was not jealous over the success of Jesus ministry. We should learn from John the Baptist and be content with what God has given us and we should not be jealous over our neighbor’s blessings. In fact, we should rejoice over our neighbor’s blessings and not hate him.
John was not angry or jealous because he knew his purpose, he knew the setting for his gift and blessing, he knew the scope of his gift and ministry, and knew the time of his blessings. John’s purpose was to prepare the way of Jesus to the souls. As missionaries, this is also the ministry of each and every one of us.
