A radical message

Below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in today's 'Irish Times'

We can pull anything out of the Bible to back up our claims, beliefs, hunches, prejudices. And that’s a real problem when it comes to our reading of any text. But it is all far more complicated with the Bible as it is a compilation of texts written a long time ago.

But tomorrow’s Gospel reading (Matthew 20: 1 – 16) can only be described as amazingly apt and indeed timely for the days that are in it.

It is the story of the workers who are all paid the same fee/wage whether or not they worked the same period of time.

Naturally those who work a full day are  annoyed when they find out that those who work for a far shorter period of time are paid the same amount.

The paymaster argues that it’s his business how much he pays his workers and the people who worked all day were paid the deal that was offered them.

“Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
It is a Gospel that has often perplexed me and reading it one could think that the boss can do what he likes.  But tomorrow’s Gospel is in many respects a part of a wonderfully woven tapestry that is forever and always explaining how Jesus is forensically on the side of the poor, marginalised and less well-off.

It really is at the centre of the Christian message. It is this amazing conviction of Jesus that makes the Gospel, the Christian message and the living out of it something so radical and probably even contradictory.

Of course there is always the question of fairness and probity. Reason tells us that someone who works five days a week  deserves to be paid more than someone who works two days with similar skills. It is understandable that someone with a highly technical and skilled job earns more than someone less skilled.

But we Christians have been mandated at our peril to take care of the weak and fragile, the less well-off in our society.

We  get angry at dodgers and people who fiddle the system. Only last week there was a TV programme highlighting some of the scams perpetrated by people who unlawfully claim unemployment benefit.

We get annoyed with those who abuse our social welfare system. It’s important that the State clamps down as well as it can on all forms of abuse across all social strata.

It is easy for us to take for granted the social welfare systems that are in place across the European Union. Certainly we should be proud of the advances that have been made in this area over the last 50 to 60 years.

And  Christianity has played a role in forming social policies that have helped the less fortunate in our societies.

But one thing is certain, we can only call ourselves followers of Christ if we pay special attention to the needs of those who are forgotten, poor and marginalised in society. It is not for us to decide the whys and ifs of the poor. It certainly is our obligation to care for them.

Once we begin to use pejorative terms for castigating those who are less fortunate than we, we are on the slippery slope of doing exactly what Jesus spent his time preaching against.

It is not always easy to side with the poor and the forgotten. But it is exactly that what Jesus talks about in tomorrow’s Gospel.

We find ourselves in uncharted waters. In the days and months and years ahead it will be extremely easy to search out scapegoats, whoever, wherever they are.

Never forget the why or the how, but the scapegoat and what we might be tempted to call their ‘ilk’ are first on the list when it comes to the love and mercy of God.

It might well be difficult to tally that with our inclinations, our mentalities, the wealth and pomp of the Church, but it is as simple as that, even if it is an extraordinary contradiction.

The day we lose our compassion and sensitivity for the weak, poor and fragile we lose a central ingredient of the Christian message.

The God of mercy, who casts his eye on the people the world might despise, also invites us to be kind and gracious to the poor.

It is an extraordinary calling and we have every reason to cherish and live it. Those who are last shall be first …

Michael Commane OP