Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every one who strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I fight not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all in Moses were baptised, in the cloud and in the sea; and all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ). But with most of them God was not well pleased.Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
These stirring words of the Apostle deepen the sentiments already produced in us by the sad recollections of which we are this day reminded. He tells us that this world is a race in which all must run, but that they alone win the prize who run well. Let us, therefore, rid ourselves of everything that could impede us and make us lose our crown. Let us not deceive ourselves: we are never sure until we reach the goal. Is our conversion more solid than was Saint Paul’s? Are our good works better done or more meritorious than were his? Yet, he assures us, that he was not without the fear that he might perhaps be lost, for which cause he chastises his body and keeps it in subjection to the spirit. Man in his present state has not the same will for all that is right and just which Adam had before he sinned, and which, notwithstanding, he abused to his own ruin. We have a bias which inclines us to evil, so that our only means of keeping our ground is by sacrificing the flesh to the spirit. To many this is very harsh doctrine, hence they are sure to fail —they never can win the prize. Like the Israelites spoken of by our Apostle, they will be left behind to die in the desert and so lose the Promised Land. Yet they saw the same miracles that Joshua and Caleb saw! So true is it that nothing can make a salutary impression on a heart which is obstinately bent on fixing all its happiness in the things of this present life. And though it is forced, each clay, to own that they are vain, yet each day it returns to them, vainly but determinedly loving them. The heart, on the contrary, that puts its trust in God, and mans itself to energy by the thought of the divine assistance being abundantly given to him that asks it —will not flag or faint in the race, and will win the heavenly prize. God’s eye is unceasingly on all them that toil and suffer.Gospel – Matthew xx. 1‒16
At that time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle and said to them, ‘Go you too into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.᾿ And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hours, and did in the like manner. But about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no man has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘Go you also into my vineyard.’ And when evening came the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last to the first.’ When therefore they came who had come about the eleventh hour, every man received a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more; and they also received a penny each. And receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying, ‘These last ones have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the heat.’ But answering, he said to one of them, ‘Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not agree with me on a penny? Take what is yours, and go your way: I will give to the last as I gave to you. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is your eye evil, because I am good?’ So will the last be first, and the first be last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
It is of importance that we should well understand this Parable of the Gospel, and why the Church inserts it in today’s Liturgy. Firstly, then, let us recall to mind on what occasion our Saviour spoke this Parable, and what instruction He intended to convey by it to the Jews. He wishes to warn them of the fast approach of the day when their Law is to give way to the Christian Law, and He would prepare their minds against the jealousy and prejudice which might arise in them at the thought that God was about to form a Covenant with the Gentiles. The Vineyard is the Church in its several periods, from the beginning of the world to the time of God Himself coming to dwell among men, and form all true believers into one visible and permanent society. The Morning is the time from Adam to Noah. The Third Hour begins with Noah and ends with Abraham. The Sixth Hour includes the period which elapsed between Abraham and Moses. And lastly, the Ninth Hour opens with the age of the Prophets and closes with the birth of the Saviour. The Messiah came at the Eleventh Hour when the world seemed to be at the decline of its day. Mercies unprecedented were reserved for this last period, during which salvation was to be given to the Gentiles by the preaching of the Apostles. It is by this mystery of Mercy that our Saviour rebukes the Jewish pride. By the selfish murmurings made against the Master of the House by the early Labourers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the Scribes and Pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God’s children. Then He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had laboured before us, will be rejected for their obduracy of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, will be made first, for we will be made members of that Catholic Church which is the Spouse of the Son of God.
This is the interpretation of our Parable given by Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great, and by the generality of the Holy Fathers. But it conveys a second instruction, as we are assured by the two Holy Doctors just named. It signifies the calling given by God to each of us individually, pressing us to labour, during this life, for the Kingdom prepared for us. The Morning is our childhood. The Third Hour, according to the division used by the ancients in counting their day, is sunrise: it is our youth. The Sixth Hour, by which name they called our midday, is manhood. The Eleventh Hour, which immediately preceded sunset, is old age. The Master of the House calls his Labourers at all these various Hours. They must go that very hour. They that are called in the Morning may not put off their starting for the Vineyard under pretext of going afterwards when the Master will call them later on. Who has told them that they will live to the Eleventh Hour? They are called at the Third Hour. They may be dead at the Sixth. God will call to the labours of the last hour such as will be living when that hour comes. But if we should die at midday, that last call will not avail us. Besides, God has not promised us a second call if we excuse ourselves from the first.
