The parable of “The Workers in the Vineyard” that we hear today is one of the most controversial in the gospels. The workers who were hired at the beginning of the day and worked 12 hours received the same wage as those hired at the end of the day who worked only one. What gives?
God justifies it because he’s generous, and his ways aren’t our ways (see Isaiah 55:8, our first reading today).
What captures the heart isn’t just God’s generosity, but also that he wants all of us to be productive and to contribute to the work of the kingdom—regardless of when we’re put to work. What’s important isn’t so much the daily wage (although some scholars connect the wage to “our daily bread” that we pray for in the Our Father—something all of us need), but the fact is that God doesn’t want anyone to be left behind and left idle. He desires a place for all of us to participate. So it doesn’t matter how long we’re at work, it’s the fact that we’re blessed to be a part of the “work force”.
In the kingdom, in God’s vineyard, the workers are working to build a better society, a better community, a better parish, a better family, a better life—not just for ourselves but for all of us together. Focusing only on the wages pushes us inward. Focusing on being active and living the gospel in the world pushes us outward.
St. Hubert at Work in the Vineyard
We’re grateful to our St. Hubert School students who are leading the effort to collect food for the Soup-er Stadium Challenge—a food drive to help restock the Catholic Charities food pantries for winter here in Cook and Lake Counties. (The Challenge is to collect enough food to fill every seat in Soldier Field—twice. That will provide over 100,000 meals.) The first week totals are in: so far St. Hubert collected almost 1,100 non-perishable food items—and we’re just beginning; we have two weeks left to go. (Watch the stadium fill up at SouperStadiumChallenge.org.
So thank you to everyone who brought in a food item today to contribute to the Challenge…and for all of you who bring food each month to help those in our local community. This is truly a labor of love.
Thanks to all those who joined the choir. We doubled in size! Also, our youth choir is getting underway with 18 children who signed up to sing. We’re looking forward to hearing them for the first time at the 9:00 AM Mass on October 8. Someone once said singing is praying twice—what a great way to contribute and participate.
Tom Heathershaw, one of our seminarians, will be speaking at all the Masses this weekend about how God has called him to discern the priesthood. As he begins his journey, at the same time we cannot help but think of Fr. Rizzo who is getting ready to leave us. We’re looking forward to celebrating all he has done for St. Hubert and the other parishes he served in his over 40 years of priestly life working in the vineyard. His retirement Mass will be held on Saturday, October 28 at the 4:30 PM Mass with a reception following. This will be a very special occasion.
And finally, our Stewards are hard at work planning for the annual Taste of St. Hubert, which will take place on Saturday, October 7 after the 4:30 PM Mass. It takes a lot of laborers working together to make this taste not just a delicious experience, but one that celebrates the rich diversity of our parish community. Thank you to our Stewards who are actively at work.
May God continue to bless you in all the good things you do for others,