At the end of today’s Gospel story, the landowner asks the grumbling worker, “have you got the evil eye because I am generous?†In the Gospel reading we have the contrast of the generosity of the landowner and the envious reaction of the laborers. We might see the landowner as representing God, and the worker as the people of the Old Testament. The Jewish people had labored under the law of Moses for many centuries, and now that Jesus was also bringing in the Gentiles to be saved, some of them felt a certain resentment. Perhaps the parable is a warning against being blinded by tensions such as this.
But the people has a wider application than the early Church. We may at times react against the injustice that we see in the world, and often we are right to do so. There is a proper sense of indignation when we see a real injustice done. Like the landwoner in the parable, God bestows gifts to people according to the divine will, and everyone has been given some gift. The basic gift is, of course, life. Without that, we would have nothing either to moan about or to rejoice in. Envying other people’s money, good looks, fame, or even spiritual gifts, does nothing except to corrode the character of the person doing the envying. Thinking about the gifts we have been given ourselves, and being grateful for them, is more positive and more gracious. We can also rejoice in the gifts of the same body, and can therefore share in each other’s gifts. John Henry Newman said: “God has created me to do Him some definitie service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I am link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work.†Amen.