A Selective Scoreboard

September 21: Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life ... Step Five).

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“If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me” (Philippians 1:22).

All the readings speak of hope. Everyone wants a life that counts for something. The Gospel says God asks only that we work for him. Productivity is nothing more than dedication. When God “hires” us, he doesn’t measure how long we work or how effectively. He rewards us, not for results, but for taking responsibility, because responsibility is the fruit of love and fidelity. If we keep trying, that is all we are graded
on.  

Even if we waste years of our life in selfishness or stupidity, living and working only for what this world can give us, when we at last “change our minds” (metanoia) and begin to live for God, God counts that time as our whole life. If we die serving him, then God says we served him all our life. To us this sounds strange, but God doesn’t see things the way we do: “‘my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,’ says the Lord.”

Our “life” for God means the time we spend living out the New Life we received at Baptism. Everything else was annihilated when we died with Jesus and in him at Baptism and rose with him as a “new creation.”

PRAY: “Lord, let me live for you now.”

PRACTICE: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near…” that is, everywhere and always.