Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you.  Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. 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?' Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.

God’s generosity is the reason why we are alive. It is the reason we have been saved. It is the reason we are loved. He holds back nothing that can help us to become the best people we can be. He gives us exactly what we need when we need it. He gives us our just reward for knowing, loving, and serving Him and His children. If we see others who don’t work as hard as us or who do evil and yet succeed in the world, it is not because God is punishing us or treating us unjustly. It is because God loves everyone equally because we are all made in His image. He offers everyone the same payment for a good life... a life everlasting with Him. In His eyes, it doesn’t matter how late or early we come to the faith as long as we come to Him. So let us not envy others whatever good they have in this world or whatever graces God gives them because God is generous and free to do as He wills with His Love and Mercy.

Are we envious of others? How can we uproot our envy and replace it with love and mercy? In what ways can we reflect and magnify God’s generosity through our own thoughts, words, and works?

O Lord, help us to be as generous to others as you are to us.

Amen.