Gifts are not transactional. In other words, gifts have no relationship to business or commerce. For something to be a true gift, it does not depend upon a past action or event and does not expect anything in the future. Gifts do not have attachments on either end. They cannot be earned. They are not deserved. One can only receive a gift.
If we give a gift and expect a gift in return, it is really an investment; at worst, it is a bribe. If we receive a gift and feel that we must reciprocate, then it is a sort of manipulation.
Today’s Gospel parable is often thought of in terms of earnings. The vineyard workers who have worked all day long look at the generosity of the owner and fail to realize that he is not paying those who have only worked for an hour. He is giving them a gift. He is being generous. Will the workers who receive his generous gift be able to repay him? A day’s wages is simply enough for a day. If a worker does not get hired that day, he and his family go hungry. So they cannot give him anything in return.
The parable is a lesson in how we relate to God. God is generous to us not because we have earned or deserve that generosity. God is generous because God is generosity itself. God is not in business, trying to earn our love or our fidelity. God is simply the gift-giver. We are the beneficiaries. All we can do is be grateful for what we have been given.
God’s generosity should help us to understand our responsibilities as workers in the vineyard. As God has been generous with us, we are called to be generous with the poor, the sick, the injured, and the weak. If we learn the lesson of generosity, we will find that God’s generosity cannot be outdone.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator