It has occurred to me that the only time that I have deemed something to be “unfair” is when it benefited someone else.  I never think of it to be unfair when it benefits me, even when I am aware that it could be; might be; Ok yes, unfair.  It becomes a little more problematic when we make “fair” and “equal” to be the same thing.  It comes out sounding a little like this, “that’s not fair, he (she) got more pieces than I did.”  Well, there could be several reasons for this seemingly “unfair” distribution of – you name it.  One possibility is that one had more pieces and the other had bigger pieces or one did extra chores to earn more pieces where the other did not.

This all came to my attention after listening to several different homilies this past weekend pertaining to the Gospel reading from Matthew 20:1-16.  In each of the homilies the word “unfair” came up more than once along with the word “justice” and were connected to our dying.  Examples of unfairness were compared to someone who has lived a life of faith and virtue such as St. Mother Teresa or St. Pope John Paul II against someone whom we perceived to have not lived a life of faith and virtue, such as Hitler.  It is attested to that King Henry the VIII, not ever denouncing his Catholic faith, had went to confession right before he died.  Why should a Hitler or Henry the VIII be able to be in heaven with St. Mother Teresa or St. John Paul II.  How is it that Dismas, the thief that died on the cross next to Jesus, with one simple statement: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” would be with Jesus in paradise, “this day?”  It begs the question, “how is that fair or just?”

Apart from the fact that in each of the homilies the homilist spent a fair amount of time trying to explain the scriptural, spiritual meaning of the passage, we were given a lesson on the meaning of what is “fair” and what is “just.”  I did spend a little time reflecting on each of the homilies I listened to because I became acutely aware of one word that I did not hear in each of these homilies, which was the word “Grace.”  I thought this to be quite unusual that not one homilist used the word “Grace.”  I realized that the focus of each of the homilies was on the “just fairness” of where each of us will end up when we die.

To say a few words on that, as I was trying to sort out the fairness of Dismas going straight to heaven as opposed to my mother, who in many ways I view as a saint.  My mother was so devoted to her faith, as innocent as it was, and tried her best to pass it on to me and my siblings.  She made sure that we attended Mass on every Sunday and all the obligatory Holy days.  She spent at least half of her life with physical suffering from severe Asthma.  I don’t ever remember her complaining about it, at least not that I heard, and I am pretty sure that she offered it up for some good, since she would keep reminding me to do the same thing, which I really couldn’t wrap my head around at the time.  As I reflected on this, a question came to my mind. To receive a get out of purgatory card and go straight to heaven, would mom have opted to be crucified alongside of Jesus?  Would I opt to be crucified along side of Jesus?  I believe to suffer the same death as our Savior trumps however much time I might have to spend in purgatory (should I be so blessed to go there).  That seems fair to me.

However, I have a question for you, who died in the Scripture passage?  In fact, where do you find the word “death” or “dying” anywhere in the passage?  Why was so much time and effort, in each of the homilies, spent on the fairness and justice of who gets to heaven first, if at all, when there is no mention of anyone dying in the passage?

As a refresher, the landowner hired laborers to work his vineyard and yes, we could go in many different directions with the interpretation from here.  Some were hired at 8:00 (my addition) in the morning – Mary and John the Baptist; some were hired at 10:00 in the morning – the apostles; some were hired at 1:00 in the afternoon – Mary Magdala; Mary, Martha and Lazarus; some were hired at 3:00 – Paul; and some at 4:59- Dismas.  The complaint at the end of the day wasn’t who earned the right to go to heaven or even who gets to go there first.  The complaint was over what each one received as a just wage.  It is easy to leap onto the “fair and just” bandwagon when we think in our human terms of a fair and just wage, along with how much time and work we each put in to it.

The focus of the story is on what was given out to each one who said yes to the landowner (God) when they (we) went to work his vineyard.  What was given to each is God’s Grace.  God’s Grace is freely and fully given when we say “yes” to God’s call to do His will, to work in His vineyard, whether at 8:00am or 4:59pm.  Karl Rahner, a 20^th century Roman Catholic theologian, defined Grace as; “God’s self-revelation of God’s self to us.”  Grace is God and God is Grace and the moment we say yes to God’s call we receive Him in the full.  There is no partiality to God’s Grace.  Hold on, I hear you say, what about the person who dies in a state of partial Grace, doesn’t that person have only a part of God?  Isn’t this where the teaching of purgatory comes in, when one dies with venial sins (partial Grace) that need to be reconciled?  It is not God who is partial, He is fully committed.  It is we who partially turn away from God to let the brokenness of this world in, not committing our lives fully to the Grace that is God.

In all fairness, I for one hope that I might be as fortunate as Dismas and I will consider it to be completely just and fair.