25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 24 September 2023

If I did a full day’s work and the person next to me only did half a day’s work, but we were both paid the exact same, I would have every right to be angry. Why should the other person be paid the same as me, if I did far more work than them? This seems to be what the gospel this Sunday tells us. A landowner goes out very early in the morning and hires workers. He hires them for the work he thinks they can do. They even agree on what pay they are to receive. We are also told that he went out four more times to hire more workers; clearly, he had more work than he realised. At the end of the day’s work, the landowner pays all the workers the same wages. This is when the argument starts. The first group of workers are angry with the landowner and envious of the other workers. The landowner’s generosity is questioned by the early workers, even though they had agreed the pay between themselves before the work started. However, the landowner replies quickly saying to them, ‘have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why are you jealous because I am generous?’