The Generosity of God

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 55:6-9

Phil 1:20c-24, 27a

Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18

Mt 20:1-16a

Today, we are talking about justice, so I have a small story:

Priest and taxi driver:

When was the last time you saw something happen, and you said, “It is unfair? Or have you ever felt that God is unjust to you?

In the second year of seminary, I had to go to the Hospital every Wednesday to visit patients. And I heard many people tell me that. Why is God so unfair to me? Why do I have to suffer this and that? Why is God unfair like that? Why did the Almighty God allow my child, who is just five years old, to die? You know, the answer I could say was, “I do not know.” Life's crises, difficulties, and suffering make many think God is unfair.

But the Psalm today tells us: “The LORD is just in all his ways.”

Today's parable shows us that God is fair and generous. However, the workers who had been working since the beginning of the day were envious of the landowner's generosity while he did exactly what he had promised.

In response to their complaints, the owner asked two questions: first, am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? second, are you envious because I am generous?' Through these two questions, the landowner wants to criticize the workers who consider themselves more valuable than others.

The parable is intended to describe God's generosity versus human selfishness.

We sometimes think about God as who we are, and then we attribute our human attitudes to God by way of treating others. But the good news is that God’s love and generosity are based on who God is, not who we are or what we have done.

The landowner in the parable reflects the image of God, who is so generous.

The generosity of our God is shown clearly in Jesus Christ, who came to share our lowliness and brokenness so that we might share what is transcendent and divine from him. Jesus loves everyone, especially bad guys, sinners, and the “little ones.” Our God is so different from us. Isn’t it? Through the prophet Isaiah, God affirmed: As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts." (Is 55:9)

God’s generosity is to make us like him by becoming one of us. The Eucharist is God’s highest generosity for humanity because in the Eucharist, God is giving himself to us and to become one with us. St. Athanasius states even more strongly: "For the Son of God/ became man/ so that we might become God." Through Jesus Christ, / God and humanity came together. Through the very person of Jesus Christ, / God’s life/ and human life become one.

Dear brothers and sisters: We are about to become one with God in the Eucharist because when we receive the Eucharist, we do not simply receive bread and wine, but "the Body and Blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole of Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained in the Eucharist.

This is the most beautiful thing: The God of heaven and earth is giving himself to us in the Eucharist. What else cannot God give to us?

St. Paul eloquently states in the letter to the Romans: “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Story: A parishioner asked the parish priest: Father, I feel wrong about the “Good Thief” that was crucified on the right side of Jesus because Jesus promised him to go to heaven that same day with Him. The thief is a robber with all kinds of sins. Yet God promised him to go to heaven right away with him. I do like that. The priest smiled and asked again: So, if you were God, you would say to the good thief: “I will not forget you, and Probably it will take too long for you to go to heaven! Because you must pay for your sins in purgatory first!” Is that what you mean? The parishioner smiled and said: "Yes, that's right! He is a bad guy; he has a lot of sins.”

The priest said: “Oh, it is so good that you're not God. That's right, you're not God, so you don't understand God's ways. People demand justice, but God acts with love and generosity. I myself do not understand God much about this point, But I only know that God's love and generosity go beyond justice."

Is God fair to us?

We need to thank God because if we receive what is fair or what we deserve from God, we can never get to heaven. God is beyond what is fair. He wants the best for us because he loves us. God always gives us the best, even though we do not deserve it.

The words of God today invite us to conduct ourselves with the same kind of generosity and love as Jesus towards our brothers and sisters, regardless of who they are, because God is so generous to us.

So, I have a question for you to reflect on today as we go out. Is it fair for Jesus to suffer and die for you and me?