Wednesday of week 20 in Ordinary Time
Saint John Eudes
Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16In today’s Gospel, the workers who have laboured all day struggle to understand why those who arrived at the last hour receive the same wage. Their difficulty comes from trying to measure God’s generosity according to human calculations of merit and reward. But the logic of God is different: it is the logic of grace. The landowner is not unjust to those who came first; he gives them exactly what was promised. His generosity toward the last workers simply reveals that his goodness is greater than what anyone has earned. We too can easily compare ourselves with others and ask why someone else seems to receive more grace, mercy, opportunity, or blessing than we think they deserve. Yet God's love is never a salary calculated according to our performance. Everything begins with His generosity. To understand the logic of God is to rejoice that His mercy exceeds our calculations, that no one arrives too late for His grace, and that His goodness toward another person never diminishes His goodness toward us. John Eudes devoted his life to making known the loving Hearts of Jesus and Mary, reminding us that God's actions flow from a heart of immeasurable love. The Gospel therefore invites us to exchange the logic of comparison for the logic of gratitude: instead of asking whether others have received more than they deserve, we learn to marvel that God gives all of us far more than we could ever deserve. Let’s reflect: Do I judge God’s goodness through comparison and calculation, or have I learned His logic of grace, which rejoices in His boundless generosity toward everyone?
Don Giorgio