We are warned today, both in the 1st Reading (Isaiah 55:6-9) and in the Gospel, (Matt 20:1-16) to avoid thinking about things in a human way. You can see and hear me give this Homily on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um1FPATE_cI
Sometimes this is easy, isn’t it? If I think in a selfish way, if I criticise others while justifying myself, then I am being very human in the bad sense of that word. On the other hand, if following the Gospel, I am generous rather than envious, then I am beginning to be a little bit more like God. So far so good. But there are some times when we may think we are saying or doing what God wants, when actually we are mistaken; and surprisingly there is an example today in our 2nd Reading; (Phil 1:20-24.27) for in the last verse we read “Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ.” Surely, we might say, that is good sound Christian teaching? Well, I hardly noticed there was anything wrong with it, until I looked up the passage in its original Greek, and then checked that the way I was translating it was right by looking at the text in a different translation of the Bible, the one that our Catholic Church in England and Wales will start using in just over a years’ time. It’s called the English Standard Version, and because it is much closer to the Greek, its English doesn’t flow quite as easily as the version we now use; but it is more accurate.
In this particular example the difference is striking. What we heard when it was read to us was a sentence about avoiding unworthy things. Seems fine doesn’t it? But now here is the more accurate translation. It reads : “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” The first version says that we must concentrate on fighting against unworthy things. In doing so it is telling us very firmly not to sin. The second version, the more accurate translation of what St Paul wrote, is not about sin at all, at least not in the negative sense of things we do wrong; instead it is a positive message about aiming to be worthy of the gospel of Christ. It therefore strikes a very different tone, where instead of looking at ourselves and bemoaning our sins, we remind ourselves that we belong to Christ and we look to him to inspire us to lift us up to serve him in our world in whatever way we can.
There is an ocean of difference between doing good because God loves us and doing good in order that God will love us. The first is Christian, the second is not; and yet all too often throughout the history of the Church people in power in the Church have slipped from one to the other; and the translator of that passage has done the same, probably without realising it. The first is the teaching of Jesus, that God loves us. He loves us when we are good and kind, but he carries on loving us even when we are cruel or thoughtless. He may not like what we are doing, but he still loves us. So that’s what Jesus teaches us, whilst the other is the teaching of the Pharisees, the ones Jesus often criticised, with their view that unless you keep all the laws, and avoid every sin, you will never please God. We will find that when we start using the better translation at Mass, we may not find it so easy to read, but it will be much more accurate, and will not make the mistake we heard today, because it is as close as possible to the original words.
One thing I suggest that will help us to think in God’s way rather than in our human way, is to make sure that when we hear one of the parables of Jesus, we look at what he is teaching us about God. For example, we think of the prodigal son and what a mess he made of his life, and forget to think about the Father, ready to love him and greet him when he eventually comes home. It is the same in today’s parable, to think about the men being hired, especially the ones who complained, and not about the landowner. Now if we look carefully at that landowner, we will see that he behaves in a very strange way. To start with he does the obvious thing, and hires people at the beginning of the day; and we might think it quite reasonable that 3 hours later he hires a few more; but when he goes on doing it, and even with only an hour of daylight left hire more people, we might begin to think him a little crazy. Why hire lazy layabouts hanging around in the square, way after the time when people are normally hired? Now that’s the point Jesus wants us to think about, and of course. Jesus is not advising employers on how to hire people, he is teaching us about God. God never gives up on us, even at the eleventh hour, and why? Because he loves us, because he is love !
This is precisely why Jesus teaches us to call God “Father.” In a good family children know that if they do something wrong, although their parents may tell them off, they do not stop loving them. They do good because their parents love them, and they know that when they are naughty, although their parents are sad, even angry, with them, their parents never give up loving them. God, like the landowner, never stops calling us, never stops searching for us, and when we do respond to him, he doesn’t start wagging his finger at us, and telling us how lazy or stupid we have been, he gives us the same love that he offers to all of us, good or bad.
Occasionally I hear of people who haven’t made their confession for many years and are frightened that they will be told off, especially if they have a big sin to confess. Of course, sadly there are some priests who would do this in the Confessional, but they are not meant to. Most priests simply rejoice that someone is making their Confession, even if it is 5 or 10 or even 20 years since the last one. These priests are doing the right thing, they are reflecting the generous love of God. In our very human way, we might want such people to be ticked off, but God doesn’t think the way we do. God rejoices over us, or to put it into the words of our 1st Reading, God always takes take pity on us… God is rich in forgiving; and so we hear “My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.”
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