THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Septuagesima Sunday 27 January 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

The last shall be first; and the first, last. There at first glance, appears to be an injustice in this teaching of Christ from today’s Gospel. There is no real injustice as we see later on, but our fallen nature is slow to see or understand the ways of God. The men who worked the whole day received exactly what they agreed upon. There was no injustice to them. They were expecting more because in their pride they felt deserving of greater reward and were fighting against the idea that others should be put on a equal standing with them. Jealously played its part also. These others have not labored or suffered as much as they did so they were jealous that they could work a short while and still receive the same reward. They perhaps wished that they had only entered the vineyard at the eleventh hour rather than in the first. They regretted working the whole day.

Our lives are represented by the one day. Some enter into the service and love of God early in their lives and thus spend their entire lives (day) in this service. Others come at various stages of their lives, with some even entering at the eleventh hour in the last moment. All receive the same reward of salvation. The greater part of mankind never enter, or quit or leave before their life (day) is ended so never receive payment of salvation.

It is not so important at what stage we enter the Church (vineyard), as it is that from the moment we enter that we persevere to the end. Our fallen nature seeks an easy way, or the way that demands the least from us. In this we show forth the depravity of our fallen nature. The service of God should be one of love and should be a joy. We should be eager to enter as soon as possible and to love and serve as long and as well as we can. It is an honor and privilege to enter into the Church (vineyard) and serve God and the longer we are privileged to serve so much greater should be our gratitude.

St Augustine bemoaned the fact that he entered the Church later in life. Paraphrasing his Confessions he says: “I have loved Thee late my God, but I love Thee now, and seek to love Thee more and more every day.” Love never seeks to do less, but always seeks to do more. True perfect love is unconcerned with any reward or recompense. It never counts the cost. Our fallen nature, however has given us an imperfect concept of love that seeks our own comfort and reward first or more than the giving of itself. When we work and sacrifice with love, the labors become a joy in themselves. The labors of love are their own reward. Christ has promised us that if we take up our crosses for the love of Him, He will make them light and sweet. (Matt 11:30) This love desires that everyone might enter into it also, but does not compare itself with them. True love only compares itself to the object of its love – God. In seeing how Jesus has loved us we feel shame for not loving Him more. We are humbled and see how unworthy we are and how good God is. No matter how long or how much we do, it will always be as nothing compared to God’s love for us. The grace of salvation will always seem to be a greater payment than we ever deserve. If the true lover looks to his neighbor and fellow workers he sees how much they do in the way of love or goodness. He does not focus upon his weaknesses but rather his strengths and humbles himself all the more seeing the good that others have done that he himself has not yet done. In this manner, he is not jealous of the other’s reward, but rather of the sacrifices and labors that others have done. In this holy jealousy we strive always to do more (not less) for God. We do not ever try to take away or destroy and tear down another to make ourselves appear better, rather true love seeks that God should be loved in greater and greater measure and thus rejoices and tries to inspire others to do more, and they mutually build up one another in sacrifices and love of God.

May we all strive for this true love, becoming unconcerned that others may enter heaven having done less than us, but rather may we always strive to do and love more, ever profoundly aware that salvation will always be a gift and more than we deserve.