AN UNUSUAL FACE OF GOD

Today’s parable reveals to us two precise features of God’s face. The first emerges in the irritated reaction of the worker called in the first hour (cf. Mt 20:12), to whom the master replies that he has not wronged anyone but that he has given what was agreed. The second instead emerges when, again in the master’s answer, he replies to the insolence of the worker by saying: «Are you envious because I am good?» (Mt 20.15). Here the master hits the mark: the protest, cloaked in a certain justice, in reality it is moved by envy. But the master is good, to an extent that exceeds the restrictions of proportionality. What does it mean? That God meets the sinner with gratuity, which does not contradict the law but expands it. Only by entering to this extent can the God of Jesus of Nazareth be known. Then the meaning of the parable becomes clear. Jesus stands before the Pharisees, who thought themselves righteous; they are scandalized by the practice of the Master as he calls sinners to free salvation (those of the last hour). The story also manifests a tension within the community of Matthew, among the Jews converted to the Christianity, and the pagans. The former wanted to claim some rights over the converted pagans, as salvation comes from the Jews (cf. Jn 4:22). But the Kingdom that Jesus has come to inaugurate is a gift, not wages; it is universal, not particular; it is gratuity, not conquest. But let us return briefly to the goodness of God, which Jesus places as decisive where divine action is concerned. The goodness of the Father arouses or should arouse our goodness towards our neighbour. The good person, like God, also makes the desert blossom around themselves. Tertullian reminds us that goodness so strongly characterized the former Christians who, from the transparency and the radiation of their chrestotès (goodness/benevolence), were called by the pagans chrestianoi instead of christianoi, i.e those who show goodness and love. We understood the divine goodness, as humbly witnessed in our lives, is the most valid announcement of the advent of Kingdom of God.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey