10 November 2026 · Syro-Malankara Rite
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“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16
Paul's words to Christian slaves sound strange to us, but their core is clear: whatever our station, we serve so that “the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed”, and we serve a believing master “all the more” because he is a brother. Work done well and honestly is a witness to Christ in every office, field and kitchen.
In the parable the owner goes out at dawn, at nine, at noon, at three and at five to call workers into his vineyard, and pays the last the same as the first. Those who worked all day grumble. “Are you envious because I am generous?” God's call comes at every hour, and his reward is not wages but himself. Samuel heard the call as a boy; Leo the Great served as Pope in hard times. Each answered when called.
Theme: “The last will be first.”
The generous Lord of the vineyard.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;” Isaiah 55:6
“and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.”” Matthew 20:4
Apply: Answer one call of God you have been postponing.
“The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” Psalm 145:9
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Matthew 20:15
Apply: Thank God for a blessing given to someone else.
“Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”” 1 Samuel 3:10
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16
Apply: Pray Samuel's words before you sleep tonight.
God's call and God's reward are both grace.
Let us answer gladly.
Take-home resolution: Offer your work each morning this week.
Dear friends, Paul's words to slaves may sound strange to us, but their core is clear: whatever our station, we serve so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed (1 Timothy 6:1). Our work is our witness.
In the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, the landowner calls workers early in the morning, at nine, at noon, at three, and even at five o'clock, and in the end gives all the same wage. Are you envious because I am generous, he asks (Matthew 20:15). God calls at every hour, and his generosity is greater than our calculations.
Today the Church remembers the prophet Samuel and Pope St Leo the Great. The boy Samuel said: speak, Lord, for your servant is listening (1 Samuel 3:10). At every age and at every hour, let this be our prayer. Amen.
Children, the boy Samuel said to God: speak, I am listening. Say the same prayer tonight before you sleep.
Lord of the vineyard, you call us at every hour and pay beyond our deserving. Free us from envy, make our work an offering, and give us Samuel's listening heart. Amen.
Two readings about work and reward. Paul tells Christian slaves to serve well, so that the name of God is not blasphemed. Jesus tells of an owner who pays the last as he pays the first. In both, the measure is not our own claim but God's goodness and the honour of his name.
Setting.
The Pastoral Letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) give Timothy, Paul's coworker, instructions for ordering the church at Ephesus. Here they speak to Christians who were slaves, of whom there were many in the early communities. Slavery was a legal institution of the Roman world; the letter does not treat it as a law to reform, but speaks to believers living inside it.
The New Testament had already planted the seed that would undo slavery: in Christ “there is no longer slave or free” (Galatians 3:28), and Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (Philemon 16). The Church today teaches without hesitation that slavery is an offence against human dignity (Gaudium et Spes 27; CCC 2414).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.” (6:1)
“rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved.” (6:2)
Belonging to the same Church does not cancel daily duties; it deepens them. Faith shows itself first at work.
How the Church reads it.
The Church reads these verses as a lesson for all work: to serve honestly and well, as for the Lord, is a witness to the Gospel. Human work can be a means of sanctification (CCC 2427), while every form of enslaving human beings is firmly condemned (CCC 2414).
Setting.
The parable is found only in Matthew. It follows Peter's question, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” (19:27), and Jesus' saying that many who are first will be last (19:30). The parable ends with the same saying turned around (20:16).
A denarius was the usual daily wage of a laborer. Day laborers waited in the marketplace to be hired, and the Law required that they be paid each day before sunset (Deuteronomy 24:15). The day was counted from about six in the morning, so the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh hours become, in the NRSV, nine o'clock, noon, three and five.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.” (20:9)
The owner begins with the last, so that the first will see. The parable wants us to feel the shock.
“Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?” (20:13)
Justice is kept, and generosity goes beyond it. No one is wronged by grace given to another.
“Or are you envious because I am generous?” (20:15)
How the Church reads it.
Many Fathers read the hours of the day as the ages of salvation history from Adam to Christ, and also as the stages of a human life, so that no one is called too late; so Origen and St Gregory the Great (in substance). The Catechism teaches that before God we have no strict right to merit, and that our merits are themselves gifts of his grace (CCC 2007, 2009).
Is the owner unfair to the first workers?
No. They receive what was agreed. The parable is not a rule for wages but a picture of grace: eternal life is not earned by hours, but given by the Father's goodness, to the first and to the last.