Friday, February 21 : Saint John Chrysostom

“You also go to my vineyard.” My brethren, you may perhaps ask why all these laborers were not sent into the Lord’s vineyard at the same time? I reply that God’s intention was to call them all at once. But they hadn’t wanted to come as soon as they were called at the first hour and this was the cause of their refusal. That was why God himself went to call each one individually… at the moment when he thought they might turn back and respond to his invitation. This is what the apostle Paul clearly notes with regard to himself: “When it pleased God, he set me apart in my mother’s womb,” (cf Gal 1:15). When was it that it pleased God if not when he saw that Paul would surrender to his call? To be sure, God would have liked to have called him at the beginning of his life, but because Paul would not have responded to his voice, God opted not to call him until he saw that he would respond. In the same way, God did not call the good thief until the last moment even though he could have done so earlier if he had foreseen that the man would have surrendered to his call. And so, if the laborers of the parable say that no one hired them, we must remember God’s patience… He himself demonstrates well enough that, for his part, he had done all he could to make it possible for all to come to him from the very first hour of the day. Thus Jesus’s parable makes us see that people give themselves to God at very different times. And God desires before all else to prevent those who were called first from despising the last.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team