Tag: labourers in the vineyard

One Minute Reflection – 17 February – “The Month of the Blessed Trinity” – Ferial Day – Septuagesima – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 10:1-5 – Matthew 20:1-16 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing and he saith to them: Why stand you here idle, all the day?” – Matthew 20:6

REFLECTION – “We can apply these hourly periods to each individual person’s life. Morning is the childhood of our understanding. The third hour can be taken as our youth because, the sun is advancing on high, as the impetuosity of age increases. The sixth hour is that of young adulthood because, when we reach our full strength, it is as if the sun is in the centre of the heavens. The ninth hour we take to be old age because, like the sun descending from its zenith, this age lacks the warmth of youth. The eleventh hour is the age which is called infirm, or old … Since then, one person is brought to a good life in childhood, another in youth, another in young adulthood, another in old age, another at the age of infirmity, it is as if workmen are being called to the vineyard at different hours.

Look at your conduct, my friends and see if you are still God’s workmen. Let everyone reflect on what he is doing and consider whether he is labouring in the Lord’s vineyard … One who has neglected to live for God, up to the last period of his life, has stood idle, as it were, up to the eleventh hour! … “Why stand you here idle, all the day?” meaning, “Even though you have not been willing to live for God in your childhood and young adulthood, at least come to your right mind in the final time of your life. Come to the Ways of Life!”…

Did not the thief come at the eleventh hour? (Lk 23:39) He possessed nothing by the length of his life but he had something, coming late … He confessed God on the cross and he gave forth his last breath, almost as he spoke. The Householder began paying the denarius beginning with the last because, He called the thief to the repose of Paradise before he called Peter!” – St Gregory the Great (540-604) Pope, Father and Doctor (Sermons on the Gospel no 11).

PRAYER – O Lord, we beseech You, graciously hear the prayers of Your people, that we who are justly punished for our sins may be mercifully delivered for the glory of Your name. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).