![]() ![]() The Virgin Mary, whom I had the joy of venerating in Lourdes a week ago, is the perfect branch of the Lord's vine. Paul clearly understood that working for the Lord is already a reward on this earth. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell" (Phil 1: 21-22). ![]() And what a lot of work he accomplished! Yet, as he himself confessed, it was God's grace which worked in him, that grace which from persecutor of the Church transformed him into an Apostle to the Gentiles, to the point of saying: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" However he immediately added: "If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. St Paul, for whom we are celebrating a special Jubilee Year, also experienced the joy of feeling called by the Lord to work in his vineyard. "My thoughts are not your thoughts", the Lord says, speaking through the mouth of Isaiah, "neither are your ways my ways" (Is 55: 8). From being "last" he found himself "first", thanks to God's logic, which - for our good fortune! - is different from the logic of the world. From a publican he immediately became a disciple of Christ. But everything changed when Jesus passed by his table, looked at him and said to him: "Follow me". Indeed, before Jesus called him he worked as a tax collector and was therefore seen as a public sinner, excluded from "the Lord's vineyard". I like to emphasize that Matthew lived this experience in the first person (cf. It is St Matthew who recounts this parable, an apostle and an evangelist, whose liturgical feast day we are celebrating on this very day. Yet only those who love the Lord and his Kingdom understand this: those who instead work only for the pay will never realize the value of this inestimable treasure. Actually, being called is already the first reward: to be able to work in the Lord's vineyard, to put oneself at his service, to collaborate in his work, is in itself a priceless recompense that repays every effort. The first message of this parable is inherent in the very fact that the landowner does not tolerate, as it were, unemployment: he wants everyone to be employed in his vineyard. Indeed those who are considered the "last", if they accept, become the "first", whereas the "first" can risk becoming the "last". That denarius clearly represents eternal life, a gift that God reserves for all. And in the evening he gives them all the same wages, one denarius, provoking protests from those who began work early. Mt 20: 1-16), Jesus recounted the very same parable of the owner of the vineyard who at different hours of the day hires labourers to work in it. You may remember that when I addressed the crowd in St Peter's Square on the day of my election it came naturally to me to introduce myself as a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.
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