This parable is so shocking. Seemingly it makes no sense at all. It goes against all our human sense of logic, justice, and order. How could those who worked less receive the same payment as those who worked more? When we maintain this vigilante sense of justice, we become angry and complain about other people who repent. We become like the other workers in the parable – full of envy, meanness, and pettiness.
Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, personal conversion, and being part of the community of faith, the Church. Yet we want to apply our mercantile, vigilante sense of justice to our lives and others. So, we end up missing the whole point of the parable, the whole point of life, just as the workers in the story.
The payment that one receives for a Christian life is being part of the Church and entrance into heaven. Half a coin payment, which to us would seem correct for half a day of work, would have to be something like “a half member of the Church” or “half of heaven”. This is not possible. A true conversion produces complete, full communion with God, a full participation in the kingdom of heaven.
The work in the parable is being part of the community of faith. That is not a terrible drudgery, a punishment, or a difficulty rather a joy whether it is for a whole life (“cradle Catholic”) or for 10 years or for 10 days. Living in communion with God is a joy. Furthermore, when a person truly repents and enters into conversion, it is an occasion of joy for everyone else in the Christian community.
The mission of the Church is to bring others into the kingdom of God. This parable calls us to a deeper sense of service to all. It calls us to abandon our sense of human justice and to be part of God’s generosity and love.
‘Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.