Weekly Reflection

Seek the Lord

In today’s opening reading, Isaiah urges us to “seek the LORD” who is “near” and can be “found” (Isaiah 55:6). Then Isaiah says God’s ways are as high above our ways “as the heavens are above the earth” (Isaiah 55:9). So we search, not because God is hiding, but because our tendencies are so different from God’s ways that we get lost.

How are God’s ways so high above our ways? The example Isaiah gives is that God’s way is to be “generous in forgiving” (Isaiah 55:7). And our way? We try to be “fair.” You hurt me, so then I hurt you back, just as hard. Then, of course, you. . . And on it goes.

In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches that God is not “fair” like that. Instead, God is so generous we can hardly understand it. The same wage for one hour as for a whole day of work? Not fair! “Seek the Lord,” and we might find a God who calls us to be, not fair, but generous beyond expectations.

The Words of the Popes

The labourers who had remained in the marketplace had probably given up all hope. That day had come to nothing. Nevertheless, someone still believed in them. What point is there to take on labourers only for the last hour of the working day?

And yet, even when it seems we are able to do little in life, it is always worthwhile. There is always the possibility to find meaning, because God loves our life. And the originality of this landowner is also seen at the end of the day, at pay time. For the owner of the vineyard, that is, for God, it is just that each person has what he needs to live. He called the labourers personally, he knows their dignity, and on the basis of this, he wants to pay them, and he gives all of them one denarius.

The story says that the labourers from the first hour are disappointed: they cannot see the beauty of the gesture of the landowner, who was not unjust, but simply generous; who looked not only at merit, but also at need. God wants to give his Kingdom, that is, full, eternal and happy life, to everyone. And this is what Jesus does with us: he does not establish rankings, he gives all of himself to those who open their hearts to him. (Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, 4 June 2025) Vatican News