for August 19
Wednesday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time

Many of the images in the Bible require an explanation for us in 21^st-century America. We do not always understand the outdated references and so miss their metaphorical meaning. The two main images in today’s readings, however, may not be familiar to us in the literal sense, but their symbolic meaning is still clear.

Even if we’re not be able to conjure up an image of an actual shepherd or know what exactly he does, the idea of the Lord as shepherd is deeply consoling. The 23^rd psalm is probably the best known and most often prayed psalm, a staple at trying times such as funerals. The understanding of Jesus as the good shepherd is such a gentle, loving image it is commonly used with children. So to hear Ezekiel in the first reading castigate shepherds still resonates with us. We don’t have to know how shepherds in the pastures keep the sheep safely together, away from cliffs they might fall off or wild animals that might eat them, or how the sheep are a source of food and clothing, to understand Ezekiel’s condemnation. God is angry with the leaders of Israel “because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep.” Does this not describe many of our leaders today? Even their specific failings can be found in today’s headlines: “You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.” All this is on display in the streets and poor regions of our country.

The parable Jesus tells in the Gospel passage is likewise based on a practice that is still in place in the United States, although not all Americans may be aware of it. Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to the experience of day laborers in a vineyard, a common metaphor at the time for Israel. There are many day laborers in the United States, including in vineyards. When I googled ‘day laborer’, the top suggestion was ‘day laborers near me.’ Such a person has to seek work every day. Being picked for a job one day does not mean you’ll be picked the next.  t’s a precarious existence. In the parable, the owner of the vineyard hires people several times throughout one day. The first group agree to the usual daily wage and the rest are told they will be given “what is just.” When the owner pays the workers at the end of the day, he starts with those hired for only the last hour, giving them the usual wage for the whole day. Seeing this, those who worked all day long expect to get more, but they receive the exact same amount and are indignant. If it were you, how do you think you would feel?

The way Jesus tells the parable is typical of him. The owner’s idiosyncratic treatment of the workers suggests a rich man playing around with them. He points out, perhaps smugly, that the first workers got exactly what they were promised. This is reinforced with his remark, “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?” To my mind, the most powerful moment in the parable is the line after that.  esus sets up his audience to relate to the workers’ envy of the owner because of his wealth and the power that gives him to jerk people around but then has him ask instead, “Are you envious because I am generous?” In this way, Jesus points out to the indignant that they in fact feel cheated because the owner chose to be generous to those who were initially bypassed, the ones who wished to work but were not hired.

In the context of both Ezekiel, who criticizes Israel’s leaders for not providing for all the people, and the 23^rd Psalm that promises that following the Lord will bring security, Jesus seems to me to be saying that a just society enables all to have their basic needs met. Everyone should be able to earn a living. Yet some feel that life is a competition and those who lose out deserve what they get. It is as a corrective to the resulting inequality that “the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
—Christine Szczepanowski

The readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.