Readings: Isaiah 55, 6-9; Psalm 145, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him; Philippians 1, 20-27; Matthew 20, 1-16.
Brief teaching on Liturgy of Word before first reading:
The disciples of Jesus were not only Jews, they continued to be Jews after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven by their presence in the temple and synagogue. After attending the Sabbath service in the synagogue, on the first day of the week they would gather at someone’s home to celebrate the Lord’s Supper where they shared memories of His teachings and sayings. But the early Church having no gospels did not have a Liturgy of the Word. The Jews, who believed that the Messiah had come-the Christ, were most likely not concerned that they didn’t have a Liturgy of the Word. Why? They had the synagogue prayer and Scripture service on the Sabbath that continually catechized the Jewish communities. It wouldn’t be until after the Jewish believers of Christ were being excluded from the synagogue and temple, thrown out and persecuted, that they realized how much they needed the gospels to be written for a Christian Liturgy of the Word to catechize new converts Sunday after Sunday.
When the Matthew and Luke gospels were written, which were also meant to address the needs, tensions and concerns of the gentile and Jewish Christian communities, there should have been in one of them an acknowledgement of a Christian Liturgy of the Word that was being used prior to celebrating the Lord’s Supper. There is, even though the Church has failed to recognize its presence during the past 19 centuries! (Read the account in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus comes into the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth on the Sabbath to stand and give the reading, then sit to give the teaching. He was required to give a teaching on the words of Isaiah; but instead said that He had fulfilled the reading from Isaiah. By doing so, the inspired writers are telling us that the words of Christ fulfill the reading from Isaiah as well as the synagogue service itself! What could it possibly mean to fulfill the Jewish ‘Liturgy of the Word?’ The inspired writers are presenting the Liturgy of the Word of the early Christian Church! It fulfilled the Jewish Sabbath synagogue service but it didn’t abandon it!
Therefore the Christian Liturgy of the Word would include a first reading from either the Law and the Prophets as well as the singing of the Psalm…all of which are the expectation for the coming of the words of Christ and their teaching…then the words of Christ and their teaching which would fulfill the expectation of the first testament and psalm. Therefore there would be a harmony between the testaments, and the Jewish Christians, intimately familiar with their Sabbath synagogue service, had the catechetical method of weekly evangelizing the converts to Christianity—besides telling us how the whole four gospels were written (the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of his coming within the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Judaism and its feasts as well).
Homily:
The parable beginning Matthew 20 on the landowner who goes to the marketplace to hire laborers for his vineyard can be readily understood if you understand the following symbolism (In doing so the words of Christ will fulfill the expectation of His coming from the prophet Isaiah who tells us that the Lord is generous, and that his ways are not our ways).
The dilemma of the parable is the reply made by the laborers to the landowner at 5:00 PM, an hour before sunset: ‘No one has given us the words that satisfy our spiritual hunger.’ (omitted the rationale from ‘no one has given us the words that satisfy our hunger’ to spiritual hunger) The landowner sends them into the vineyard where Christ is the vine. His words will satisfy their spiritual hunger. The landowner is like a hound who has continually gone to the marketplace to bring back laborers who long to hear the words that will satisfy their spiritual hunger…so the landowner is the vine, the Christ. The wage is that which is ‘righteous’, therefore what God would pay his laborers.
Christ is an advocate for his laborers by going to the ‘manager’ (his Father) asking him to give each laborer the wage of salvation beginning with the last and going to the first. The wisdom of the parable come from the words of Christ, ‘I choose to give to the last the same as I give to you (the first)’. The first do not understand that the ways and thoughts of God are generosity and mercy. Jesus tells them to ‘go,’ which in Greek is to leave without noise or fanfare… to rather come to their senses and rejoice with the angels over these last who have repented….
Why is this parable placed where it is within the Matthew gospel? Immediately following are the words of Christ on who is the greatest in the kingdom of God (the one who shows mercy and generosity by reaching out to the least by making them the first)
Why is this parable placed within the Matthew gospel instead of the Luke gospel? The Jewish Christians are to reach out the gentiles (who are the last) with the inspired Liturgy of the Word to welcome them as the first!
Picture 1: Mass Begins
Picture 2: The Team
Picture 3: The Guys, Jerry, Bill, Mike, & Tony
Pciture 4: Leo with Rosemary
Picture 5: Claire with her fiance & dad, Andrew & Tom
Picture 6: John & Sandra