We live in a society where success is measured by your job title, the amount of money you make, how many cars and or houses you have, how many followers you have on social media and even by the amount of hours you work. It’s never measured by the amount of people you serve or how much you give away.

It makes me think about today’s Gospel reading. What if we all had the same mindset as the landowner fromtoday’s Parable? Think about it. He hired workers all throughout the day starting at dawn and ending at 5 o’clock. The workers who worked from morning had been working all day in the sun, while the ones who got hired at 5 had only worked for one hour, yet the landowner paid them equally. Of course, this seems unfair to us as humans because “[our] ways are not [God’s] ways” as the Lord states in the first reading. He states, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Jesus shares this parable to show the GENEROSITY of our Lord. God’s love and mercy is availableto everyone. He sees us all as equals. Just as the landowner gave equal pay to all workers, the Lord gives us equal love and mercy. The Psalm from today states, “The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.”

If we were in the situation of the workers who started at dawn, we would easily see that as something unfair - we worked hard all day! We should get paid more! Because our mindset is this way, our world is unjust. That’s the simple truth.

Gender-related discrimination doesn’t allow for women to have the same pay as their male counterparts.

Discrimination against certain beliefs causes a big divide in our society instead of promoting diversity.

Racial inequality from years back is still very evident today in our world, not giving them equalopportunities in the workforce, healthcare, or education.

This is evident in the work I do in Guatemala with the organization Little Angels of Mary. We work with indigenous communities that, because of social injustices, people are forced to live in poverty with little to no education, no healthcare, or food security.

Many of the children we work with are malnourished. Many of the parents we work with only have an education up to 3rd grade elementary. All of the families we work with live in extreme poverty and don’t see a way out of it. Many of them see immigrating to the United States or Canada as a way to get out of poverty, but that just splits families apart instead of bringing them together. All because of racial inequality that started back when the Spaniards came to the Americas in the 1500s.

“The Lord is near to all who call upon him.” “The Lord is good to all.”

God seeks justice for everyone. May we all be more like Jesus and seek justice for all.

The world may not be just, but our Lord Jesus Christ is just in his love and mercy. He is good to all. May we all live a life like Jesus and be kind and generous to all God’s children. And fight for those who need our support because God gives us the strength and the mercy to help overcome these inequalities.

Follow God’s ways, not our ways. God calls us all to serve others.

We all have two decisions: seek your own happiness or seek the good of others and live for others, like Jesus did.

The landowner chose the second route, to seek the good for others.

There is room for all of us in God’s kingdom. We must search for the good for all of God’s people. We must seek justice for all because that is what God calls us to do. The landowner in the parable kept looking forworkers until the last hour of the day. He showed his generosity and didn’t think about fairness because to him it was important to give everyone the same amount, which is exactly what God does to us. God gives us the same amount of love and the same amount of mercy. He loves us all unconditionally.

Let us all choose the second route, to seek the good of others and to live for others. Whether that’s working with organizations that provide quality support to the marginalized, speaking up for those with no voice, or simply providing a helping hand to those in need.

God’s ways are far better than our ways, so let’s work towards living more “like him”, or we could also say “like her”, who is not only a caring father, but also a loving and giving mother.

‍