25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

God’s Grace Calls Without Measure: He Rewards Beyond Human Calculation 

(Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mathew 20:1-16a, 20 September 2026) 

Today’s passage from the Gospel (Mathew 20:1-16) recounts the parable of the laborers called to put in a day’s work by the owner of the vineyard. Through this narrative, Jesus shows us the surprising way God acts, represented by two of the owner’s attitudes: the call and the recompense. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 2020) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

The God Who Keeps Calling-Today’s Gospel presents us with one of Jesus’ most challenging parables: the workers in the vineyard. A landowner goes out early in the morning to hire laborers. He returns at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, and finally even at the eleventh hour. At the end of the day, he pays them all the same wage. Human calculation immediately objects: “That is not fair!” The logic of the market-place says: more work, more reward. The logic of grace, however, is different. 

Pope Francis observed that the parable reveals something surprising about God’s way of acting, particu-larly through two attitudes of the landowner: the call and the recompense. God does not stop calling, and his generosity cannot be reduced to our calculations. 

The first important truth, therefore, is this: God’s grace is not exhausted by our timetable. The landown-er repeatedly goes into the marketplace because people are still waiting. Some have been standing there since morning; others have arrived later. The Gospel does not tell us that those hired later were neces-sarily lazy. They simply had not yet been called. This is an important theological insight. Grace begins with God’s initiative. Before we accomplish anything for God, God has already reached toward us. 

Grace Cannot Be Measured Like a Wage-The central difficulty in the parable comes when the workers receive their payment. Those who worked only one hour receive the same denarius as those who worked throughout the day. The workers who came first complain: “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us.” Their complaint reveals something deeper than economic disagreement. It reveals the human tendency to turn relationship into calculation. We calculate almost everything: How much have I done? How much has he done? Why did she receive more recognition? Why was that person forgiven so easily? Why does someone who came late receive the same blessing? This mentality can enter even into religious life. 

Theologically, this does not mean that human effort is meaningless. It means that human cooperation with grace does not turn grace into a debt owed by God. We truly work. We truly sacrifice. We truly per-severe. But our works remain responses to God’s prior generosity. St. Augustine expressed the mystery beautifully: when God crowns our merits, he crowns his own gifts. That is the paradox of grace: God re-wards what he himself has enabled us to do. 

The Danger of Comparing Our Grace with Another’s-The parable exposes another spiritual danger: com-parison. The first workers were not angry because they received less than they were promised. They re-ceived exactly what the master had agreed to give them. Their dissatisfaction came because someone else received the same. 

Jesus challenges this mentality directly. The master asks: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” The final question reaches into the heart of the Christian disciple. The problem is not that God is unjust. The problem is that we sometimes find God’s generosity toward another person offensive. Philosophically, this reveals the difference be-tween justice and envy. Justice asks whether I have received what was promised. Envy asks whether an-other person has received something good. The workers received their agreed wage. Their problem was not injustice; it was comparison. 

The Eleventh Hour: No One Is Beyond the Call-One of the most beautiful elements of this Gospel is the repeated movement of the landowner into the marketplace. He does not go only once. He goes again and again. At the eleventh hour he asks those still standing there: “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They answer: “Because no one has hired us.” And the master says: “You also go into the vineyard.” This is a profound image of God’s mercy. The eleventh hour represents every moment when a person thinks: “It is too late for me.” Too late to return. Too late to change. Too late to forgive. Too late to pray. Too late to begin again. Too late to become holy. But the Gospel says: No hour is too late for grace. God continues to call. 

From Entitlement to Gratitude-The spiritual transformation demanded by today’s Gospel is a movement: from entitlement to gratitude, from comparison to communion, from calculation to generosity, from resentment to rejoicing. The first workers thought like employees protecting their rights. Jesus invites his disciples to think like children receiving the Father’s generosity. There is an important distinction here. Christianity does not deny justice. God is not unjust. Rather, divine justice is fulfilled within a greater horizon: mercy and love. God does not merely ask, “What have you earned?” He asks, “Will you enter my vineyard?” The kingdom of God is not ultimately a transaction. It is communion. The denarius, therefore, can be understood as an image of the fullness of life with God. Eternal life is not divided into portions according to the number of hours we have worked. God gives himself. And God cannot be divided. If the ultimate reward is God himself, then the latecomer does not receive a smaller God. 

The Vineyard Is Still Open-Every Sunday, the Gospel asks us a personal question: Where am I in the vineyard? Perhaps I am one of those called early. Perhaps I have served God faithfully for many years. Perhaps I am one of those who came later. Perhaps I am still standing in the marketplace, waiting to hear God’s invitation. Or perhaps I have become like the workers of the first hour, tempted to resent those who came later. Whatever our situation, the landowner still says: “Go into the vineyard.” There is still work to do. There is someone to forgive. Someone to encourage. Someone to visit. Someone to welcome. Someone who has become isolated and needs companionship. Someone who has stopped coming to church and needs a gentle invitation rather than criticism. Someone who feels that God has forgotten them. 

Grace Has the Last Word-The final sentence of Jesus is deliberately unsettling: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” The kingdom reverses our ordinary measurements. The world asks: How much did you accomplish? Christ asks: How much did you love? The world asks: Who deserves more? Christ asks: Can you rejoice in the generosity of God? The world asks: What have I earned? Grace asks: What have I received? 

At the deepest level, the Gospel teaches us that salvation is not a prize we calculate; it is a gift we receive and a life we gratefully embody. We should work faithfully in God’s vineyard—but never with a calculating heart. We should persevere—but without pride. We should serve—but without demanding that God measure our service against someone else’s. And when another person receives God’s mercy, our response should not be resentment but thanksgiving: “How wonderful that God’s grace has reached another person too.” For the God of the Gospel does not love according to our arithmetic. His grace calls without measure, his mercy exceeds calculation, and his generosity is greater than our sense of deserving. 

Fraternally, 
Fr. John Peter Lazaar SAC, Pastor