A few years ago, my Mom and I had the great privilege of seeing my sister Laura take her students to State Orchestra Contest. I will never forget the pride I felt watching Laura up there so poised as she directed her students. They did a phenomenal job and we cheered loudly along with many others when they completed their contest pieces. Then came the waiting. That is always the most nerve-wracking part of these competitions–waiting around in the school lobby to see what rating you get from the judges. It was definitely worth the wait. I remember the volunteer walking up to the big chart that listed all the different schools who were competing, and we all held our breath as we watched her write the score for Zanesville, Laura’s school. They got a one, which is a Superior rating, and we found out later that all the judges had given them ones! It was the first time Zanesville High School’s orchestra ever received straight ones at Contest. My heart was so full of joy to see Laura celebrate with her students. It was an awesome victory!
As we ponder this Sunday’s readings, another memory on my heart is of participating in the final Mass at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the Summer of 2013. I remember standing in the crowd on Copacabana beach in Rio and being totally overwhelmed by the number of people gathered there for Mass. Some estimates were as high as 4 million people or more. 4 million people! I remember looking out at the crowd and quite literally having my mind blown. My brain couldn’t process what I saw. For the first maybe 100 yards or so I could register people, but beyond that my brain just melted. All I could register was a mass of humanity stretching as far as the eye could see.
I will never forget the joy of receiving Jesus in the Eucharist at that Mass. Eucharistic ministers in white lab coat-looking outfits went all up and down the beach and we just flocked to them to receive Communion. I was completely overwhelmed with joy as I received Jesus along with Catholics from all over the world–millions of them! That was a joy I will never forget.
The parable Jesus tells us this Sunday is about people who are caught in the opposite of joy. They are dealing with frustration and jealousy. This parable paints the picture of a landowner who goes and finds various laborers to work his land. There is plenty of work to do, so he continues going out throughout the day to recruit new workers. When it gets to the end of the day, those who worked the least get paid the same as those who worked the most. I bet most of us can relate to the frustration expressed by those who had worked the whole day: “These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.”
Behind this frustration is likely something more than just grumbling at what they perceive as unfair payment. It is pride and self-centeredness, which leads to a sense of entitlement. Notice how they phrase it–they don’t talk about the pay directly, they complain that the landowner has made the last ones “equal to us.” This wording indicates that their problem is more about status than it is about money. They believe they’re higher because of what they’ve done. The key is how the landowner responds: “What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?”
This is what we are called to ponder today: the generosity of God in pouring out His love and mercy on us. So often we can fall into the trap of thinking of God’s grace in transactional terms. We do good things, and then cha-ching, we earn the love of God. This even bleeds over into our view of Heaven. We look at Heaven as a type of individual reward for a job well done. But that isn’t how it is here on earth or in Heaven, and this way of thinking robs us of the joy God intends us to have.
The key is that God’s love is given freely. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Nothing we can ever do could earn the kind of love we see poured out on the cross. The only thing we can do is open our hearts to it and let it run through us. We are called to live in that love. And God is so generous that it doesn’t matter to Him one bit whether we have lived in His love for five minutes or fifty years. He abounds with love for all His children! This is the mystery of the grandeur of His love for us, that He loves us overwhelmingly regardless of how long we have responded to that love. As we heard in the first reading, His thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways. His love for others doesn’t in any way inhibit or lessen His love for us. His heart is full of infinite, overflowing love for all of His children, knowing that each of them is able to respond to that love in different ways, some greater, some smaller.
When I rejoiced with my sister because of her awesome accomplishment as an orchestra director, it was amazing. That moment was a grace! I was able to enjoy the reward she received for her work as if it were my own, simply because she was my sister. I will never have that kind of skill in directing an orchestra, but that didn’t stop me from whooping and crying tears of joy with Laura that night. Now this is not always the case. I can certainly think of times where I have fallen into jealousy over the accomplishments of my siblings. I bet all of us can relate to that struggle. But that moment sticks with me because of the family joy we shared. That is a blessing.
It was a similar joy at World Youth Day. Surrounded by the throngs of different, unique people from all over the world, I was overwhelmed with joy at receiving the Eucharist with them. Some of them probably had an even more profound experience of joy than me at receiving Jesus in the Eucharist that day, but that didn’t matter. It was a shared moment of joy as the Body of Christ gathered together.
This is the type of joy our hearts long for but we sometimes miss out on because of our sin and selfishness. We are made for those family joys. And if you are skeptical about that, don’t take my word for it, listen to St. Paul: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.”
Our call is to rejoice together as members of the family of God, the Body of Christ. The Church is not an exclusive club, but an expansive Body. Our sense of family helps us to keep an outward focus that looks to welcome in those who may not have shouldered the burden for as long, but are nonetheless chosen by Jesus to be members of His Body, the Church.
Let’s pray today for our hearts to be set on fire with the love of Christ so that we might share each other’s joys and burdens here on earth as a Body. This will help us to walk together towards Heaven, that ultimate family celebration where we can rejoice together in the love of God we shared here on earth and now get to share without end!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much in sending us your only begotten Son to save us. Jesus, give us hearts to rejoice in the blessings of our brothers and sisters. Holy Spirit, guard our hearts from jealous individualism that can separate us off from the joy we should share as members of the Body of Christ. +