Today’s gospel (Mt 20:1-16) reminded me of an article I wrote nearly a decade ago:

http://www.cuf.org/2008/03/laborers-in-the-vineyard-gods-challenge-our-reward/

Jacob Willemszoon de Wet, mid 17th century.

I would add an insight that came to me today upon hearing this reading again.  While this parable doesn’t make sense on a practical level or in a business sense, it does convey an important truth.  The ultimate reward that comes from God is the perfect happiness of heaven.  So, whether one has been following Christ his entire life or is relatively new (even on his deathbed) to communion with the Church, the “compensation” for staying committed to the Lord until our final breaths is the same.  With the God who is Love (see 1 Jn 4:8), it can’t be any other way.  We should not want it any other way, either.

And for those struggling even still with this whole concept, these verses (one Old, one New) that kept popping into my mind today should help:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways…

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways,

my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

— Isaiah 55:8-9

and

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom…

— 1 Corinthians 1:25