There is always a link between the first reading and the Gospel, excerpt during Lent and Easter, and it is easy to see that link today. In the first reading we heard:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. (Isa 55:8)
In the Gospel (Matt 20:1-16), the landowner in Jesus’ parable paying the same wage to those who worked part of the day and to those who worked all day is certainly an example of God’s thoughts not being our thoughts. But of course the parable is not about wages; Jesus only employs a parable about economics, that is scandalous to us, to show us how different God is. The end of the parable is a key to help us understand; the landowner says to one of those who worked from the beginning of the day and was grumbling, “I am generous.” The parable teaches us the generosity of God who welcomes people no matter when they convert and turn their lives over to God. “It is never too late to turn to God” we could say is the meaning of the parable.
The landowner in the parable went out five times to hire workers. He went out at dawn. This reminds me of cradle Catholics who had the privilege knowing Jesus from infancy.
The landowner went out at nine o’clock to hire workers (the third hour in Matthew’s Greek; twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of night, see John 11:9). The well-known American Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, a very influential Catholic writer in the last century, was baptized an Anglican in New York in 1915 at his father’s request. He had what could be described as a restless or chaotic youth. While studying at Columbia University in New York he was drawn to read Catholic writers. He was torn between what he saw as the truth of Catholicism and needing to change. He took Catholic instruction and was baptized a Catholic at the age of 23 in 1938. Three years later, he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemane, Kentucky. While he wrote more than fifty books, his most famous is his autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain. He died in 1968.
The landowner in the parable went out at noon (the sixth hour in Matthew’s Greek). The first US born canonized saint, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, was raised an Episcopalian. She and her husband were well to do, living in Wall Street, New York. They had five children. After her husband’s death, she was introduced to Catholicism by her husband’s business partners and underwent a deep spiritual journey and was received into the Catholic church in 1805 at the age of 30, in what was then the only Catholic Church in Manhattan (St. Peter’s in Barclay St.). She founded the first Catholic orphanage in New York in 1817. She was invited to Emmitsburg, Maryland where she founded the first Catholic girls’ school in the US from where the Catholic school system spread throughout the US. She also founded the Sisters of Charity who later merged with the Daughters of Charity. She was canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI as the first American born saint.
The landowner in the parable went out at three o’clock (the ninth hour in Matthew’s Greek). Sir Alec Guinness, a famous English actor, was raised an Anglican in difficult family circumstances though for a long time he identified as an atheist. He played the part of Father Brown in the 1954 movie Father Brown also known as The Detective. While filming in France and walking down a street dressed as a priest, a child thought he was a priest, took his hand, and walked with him trusting him. (Alec Guinness Blessings in Disguise p36) That began his journey to Catholicism. He began to study Catholicism, especially after his son was seriously ill and recovered, and he entered the Catholic Church at the age of 42 followed soon after by his wife and son.
The landowner in the parable went out at five o’clock (the eleventh hour in Matthew’s Greek). Oscar Wilde lived a “wild” life, to put it mildly, and underwent some kind of deathbed conversion. Fr. Dunne, who was in the Passionist monastery in Paris, which provided the chaplaincy at that time to the English speakers in Paris, was called to Wilde. The day before he died, Wilde consented to conditional baptism by Fr. Dunne and received what was at that time called Extreme Unction or the Last Rites and attempted as best he could, though he was dying, to answer the prayers. He died the following day.
In the parable in the Gospel, the landowner went out at dawn, nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock and five o’clock to hire laborers for the vineyard. I think we could see the parable fulfilled in the lives of cradle Catholics, the monk Thomas Merton, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Sir Alec Guinness, and Oscar Wilde. As I said earlier, the end of the parable is a key to help us understand; the landowner says to one of those who worked from the beginning of the day and was grumbling, “I am generous.” The parable teaches us the generosity of God who welcomes people no matter when they convert and turn their lives over to God. This gives hope to parents praying for the conversion of their children; you never know when in the future your prayers will be answered.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday Year A