Septuagesima Sunday 13 February 2022 Final perseverance
Working in the vineyard means any task that God would want us to be doing, whether it be the routine carrying out of duties, or some special task that might be only once in a lifetime.
Be it large or small, easy or difficult, if we do it we are working for God. He gives us assignments and we carry them out, usually needing His help.
If the task is simple then we need His help that we do not think we can get by without Him!
When we work for someone it is usually seen as an ongoing thing, that the same sort of tasks will be repeated for such time as the employment lasts.
So it is with us and God. We work for Him and we use the time available to do as much as we can in His name, and hoping to please Him.
St Paul refers to perseverance – the runner keeps running to the end. He does not ease off until he has finished.
The Christian is tempted to slow down if there is no visible urgency. Why push ourselves if there is no need?
In the spiritual world a lot of things are invisible, but that does not mean they are absent.
We learn to discern the ways of God and what sort of things He wants from us.
He is concerned with our attitude as much as the tasks themselves. If we maintain a charitable attitude, for instance, that will please God more than that we finish the tasks successfully.
God wants to include us in His saving activity. He does this by ‘employing’ us as His workers.
Being employed is more gratifying than receiving handouts. So it is in the spiritual life.
God showers His gifts upon us but usually we have to do something to receive those gifts or make them work for us.
Take rain, for instance. Rain is an obvious blessing direct from Heaven. When it falls it means other things can happen – such as sowing the seed, preparing the harvest, making the harvest.
If we do not do these other things the benefit of the rain will be lost.
So in the spiritual life, God offers us Mercy but if we do not consciously accept that mercy we will still be in our sins.
Many today have a passive notion of salvation, that it will happen anyway regardless of anything we do; God simply puts us in Heaven when we die.
In fact He wants to give us something better than that. He wants us to understand the idea of being co-workers with Him in the harvest.
The work we do in God's name will predispose us to understand and receive the gifts He is giving us.
Conversely if we do not do any work we will not benefit, and may even lose our place altogether.
So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. (Mt 25,28).
As we grow into this role we find that we want to do it as it becomes natural to us.
There is hard work involved because so much opposition has to be encountered; cf Jesus’ own sufferings. But He was glad to suffer for the sake of saving sinners. His reward was the satisfaction of setting others free, and we have some of that feeling as we look on so many suffering souls in the world around us.
Our salary is one denarius, meaning entry to Heaven. We don’t resent others getting the same reward for less work. We are just glad to be part of the salvation process. It is then that we fully experience and express our true nature, sharing in the generosity of Christ Himself.
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