“America,
Let Us Return to God’s Mercy & He Will Grant Us Peace”
@20:25
This year, 2020, will definitely go down in history as
a very different year.
For us in California, I need not list all our crises
and tragedies here. They are almost like
the 10 plagues of Egypt but here in California.
Someone recently semi-joked, “So what chapter of the Book of Revelation
are we in now?” Or California skies look
more like Mars than Earth. But with all
this somewhat light-hearted joking aside during our serious public situation,
we cannot but help ponder what message God is bringing to us through all the
death, destruction and bad news.
That is where the Good News of today’s Gospel is
relevant for our fears and concerns. Let
the Good News keep our spirits up to persevere and endure these trials. [America, Let Us Return to God’s Mercy &
He Will Grant Us Peace.]
In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us the Parable of the
Workers. Some workers were hired at 9am
in the morning, but some workers were hired later in the day around 3pm in the
afternoon or even 5 pm in the evening.
At the end of the day, when it came time to pay everyone for their labor,
the workers that were hired around 9am complained that those hired at 5pm
received the same salary.
Here, Jesus once again exaggerates his message, not as
a businessman or commenting on labor and management standards in the workplace,
but rather Jesus is teaching us about God’s mercy. “Am I not free to do what I want with my own
money?” That money is the treasure of
mercy and grace.
For many of us here at Mass, for many you who have
taken time this Sunday to attend in person or join us via livestream, you and I
are the workers called early at 9am by God at this time. You are I have made many sacrifices for love
of God for many, many years. You are
faithful, you know the importance of the Eucharist, you know how it is important
to stay connected to Sunday Mass. You
and I are the faithful workers in God’s vineyard hired early in the morning. God’s graces are working in you in a way that
it is not working in others.
I have sometimes wondered why God asked me to serve
him in my youth, while others were called to follow Him as adults later in
life. In a way, humanly speaking, it’s
not fair. But in today’s Good News,
divinely speaking, Jesus reveals how God dispenses his mercy, his graces, how
he calls even great sinners. As it is
written in the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Seek the
Lord?” How? “While he may be found.” “Let the scoundrel forsake his ways.” The first is last and the last is first
because God calls even great sinners to be great saints.
St. Augustine, after his later conversion in life,
said, “Late have I loved Thee, O Lord, ancient Beauty ever New, late have I
loved Thee. … You called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness.” In addition to this, there is a saying
attributed to the Protestant minister John Bradford who saw a man condemned to
death. The condemned man was on his way
to his execution. John Bradford,
realizing that that very man could have been him, exclaimed, “There, but the
grace of God, go I.” “There, but the
grace of God, go I.” In other words, if
it was not for the grace and mercy of God, that condemned man… would have been
me. We too should be grateful that God
has given us the grace of conversion now to follow him, to serve him, to love
him at this point in our life. We should
be grateful that we are the workers called by God so early in the morning to
labor for him and not compare ourselves with the others. It is
not a matter of when God calls us to mercy but rather that God
calls us to mercy. It is not a matter
that I am late loving God but rather that I love and serve God now.
[???To drive the point home, St. Teresa of Avila once
had a mystical vision about God’s mercy.
She said that one time, Jesus allowed her to see a vision of what it would
be like if she did not end up in Heaven.
St. Teresa of Avila saw where she would be in Hell. She gave thanks to God that she was given the
grace of conversion early on in life; she thanked God for mercy.]
Dear brothers and sisters, during these trying times
for the Church, let us in the midst of our tribulation ask, beg, intercede and
pray that God shortens these times. Let
us plead for God’s infinite mercy upon those have not been given the graces to accept
God’s mercy, especially here in America, in California, in our city. Let us ask God to shorted these scourges for
the sake of the Elect, to grant mercy upon us.
Pray the rosary every day for world peace and to stop the spread of many
errors.
“America, Let Us Return to God’s Mercy & He Will
Grant Us Peace”. Like we sang or recited
in the Responsorial Psalm, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.” Let us return to the commandments of God in
our land, beginning with the first to respect innocent human life in the womb
from conception to natural death, to respect the dignity of every human person
in between conception and death, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, to
forgive how we have hurt each other, to love justice and righteousness, to bend
our knees only to God Almighty and ask his divine mercy for America. Like St. Paul wrote to the Philippians in
today’s Second Reading, let us act as worthy ministers of the Gospel.
In closing dear brothers and sisters, let us not wait
on our deathbeds to return to God. …because
it may be too late by then. Let us be
the workers called early in the morning of our lives by God. [And let us be grateful for this early call.] Let us not wait until later in the evening of
our lives, but let us accept God’s mercy now.
May we love Him and serve Him all our days in this life, so that we can love
Him serve Him in the next life forever.
Amen.
