The Holy Martyr Hyacinth of Amastris; Holy Martyr Emilian (360-63)
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1 Corinthians 13:4-14:5; Matthew 20:1-16
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
By today’s parable, the Lord teaches us that God’s grace, as well as eternal life, is given to us, not as a result of an arithmetical calculation of the quantity and quality of our work or according to the time of encountering Christ our Lord in the Church, but according to God’s mercy. The Jews thought that a greater recompense was due them, as the first members of the Messiah’s Kingdom, in comparison with the Christians of non-Jewish descent who had joined this Kingdom later. But God has an entirely different measure of righteousness. On His scales, sincerity, diligence, pure love and humility are more valuable than the external and formal side of human works. The good thief, who repented so late and sincerely on the cross and believed in the rejected and tormented Savior with his whole heart, was deemed worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven equally with the other righteous, who had served God from early childhood.
Let us be encouraged by the fact that Jesus promises us paradise regardless of how early or late we got in the game. Whether we were brought into Christianity as an infant and raised up as a child, or whether we were old when we first come into the Church, we can be encouraged by knowing that Christ offers us eternity, that Christ offers us paradise.
Also, dear brothers and sisters, keep in mind that everybody in the parable who gets paid is somebody who is willing not to just stand around idle but somebody who is willing to work hard and persevere until the end of the day. However much time you have left, however many years you have left, are you going to waste it on yourself? Are you going to waste it on your pleasures? Or are you going to diligently work hard for the kingdom realizing that you’ve only been given a short life, realizing that the difficulties you’ve been called to are only for a little while? Are you going to persevere with effort all the way to the very end so that you might be found faithful and worthy of the eternal reward?