Fr. Michael Williams

Jesus was sent into the Lord’s Vineyard, the world, to work for the Heavenly Father. Jesus’ work was to reveal to humanity God’s love for humanity, a humanity that had often wandered far away from God, a bit like a delinquent teenager wandering away from its parents’ desires! Jesus’ work was to reconcile humanity with God, and bring rebellious humanity back into friendship with God, who is our only hope.

A significant part of Jesus’ Mission was to preach this message of mercy and hope. He often did this through the use of parables, as we’ve been hearing over the last few weeks, but ultimately He fulfilled His Mission, not with words, but with actions, specifically the action of being, ‘humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a Cross’. It was this action, when Jesus atoned for our sins; when He revealed Himself as ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world’, that was to be our saving grace.

Like the first son in today’s parable, there were times Jesus struggled with the commission given to Him by God. This is most clearly seen in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He was to make the ultimate Sacrifice for sins when we witness Him pray, ‘Father, take this Chalice of suffering away from me, nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine’. In a sense this was Jesus thinking I’d rather not go, but ultimately He would go to the Cross, which opened the way to the Resurrection and the new life of Easter.

Ultimately, Jesus didn’t think of His own interests, only the interests of humanity, whom He came to rescue from the powers of death. St Paul exhorts us- we who are the Lord’s disciples for this generation- that ‘in your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus’. That means firstly doing God’s will and working in His vineyard. Of course that will be tough at times. Doing God’s work, whatever our state in life, will have it’s difficulties. But ultimately, we need to put our shift in at the Lord’s vineyard.

That shift may be parenting, it may be nursing, it may be teaching, it may be spiritual works. Of course Jesus is aware that many say they are going to do the Lord’s work, but never actually get round to it because they are preoccupied with things that are passing away and have no value in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Example, Edith Stein? Working for trivialities and then working for the Lord.