Vigils Reading – 25th Sunday

A reading from

ST AUGUSTINE

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The gospel story about the vineyard workers is appropriate to this time

of year, the season of the earthly grape harvest. But there is also another

harvest, the spiritual one, at which God rejoices in the fruits of his vineyard.

The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out to hire men to

work in his vineyard. In the evening he gave orders for all to be paid, beginning

with the last comers and ending with the first. Now why did he pay the last

comers first? Will not everyone be rewarded at the same time? We read in

another gospel passage how the king will say to those placed on his right hand:

Come, you whom my Father has blessed: take possession of the kingdom prepared

for you from the foundation of the world.

If all, then, are to receive their wages together, how should we understand

this statement about those who arrived at the eleventh hour being paid first, and

those who had been working since daybreak being paid last? If I can say

anything to further your understanding, thanks be to God. Give thanks to him

who teaches you through me, for my own knowledge is not the source of my

teaching. To take an example, then, let us ask which of two workers receives his

wages sooner, one who is paid after an hour, or one who is paid after twelve

hours? Anyone will answer: “One who is paid after an hour.” So also in our

parable. All the workmen were paid at the same time, but because some were

paid after an hour and others after twelve hours, the former, having had a

shorter time to wait, may be said to have received their wages first.

The earliest righteous people like Abel and Noah, called as it were at the

first hour, will receive the joy of resurrection at the same time as we do. So also

will others who came later, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those contemporary

with them, called as we may say at the third hour; Moses and Aaron and those

called with them at the sixth hour; and after them the holy prophets, called at the

ninth hour. At the end of the world all Christians, called at the eleventh hour, will

receive the joy of resurrection together with those who went before them. All

will be rewarded at the same time, but the first comers will have had the longest

to wait. Therefore, if they receive their reward after a longer period and we after

a shorter one, the fact that our reward is not delayed will make it seem as though

we were receiving it first, even though we all receive it together.

In that great reward, then, we shall all be equal-the first to the last and the

last to the first. For the denarius stands for eternal life, in which all will have the

same share. Although through diversity of merit some will shine more brilliantly

than others, in the possession of eternal life there will be equality. What is

endless for all will not be longer for one and shorter for another. What has no

bounds will have none either for you or for me. Those who lived chastely in the

married state will have one kind of splendor; virgins will have another. The

reward for good works will differ from the crown of martyrdom; but where

eternal life is concerned there can be no question of more or less for anyone.

Whatever may be the individual’s degree of glory, each one will live in it

eternally. This is the meaning of the denarius.