Joke: A young man by the name Johnny was driving down the street in a hurry because he had an important meeting and couldn’t find a parking space. Looking up to heaven, he said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I promise to go to Church every Sunday for the rest of my life and give up swearing.” Miraculously, a spot opened right in front of a building. The man looked up and said, “Never mind God, I found it.”

In all today’s readings, the Church invites us to look into the mercy and generosity of God that our thought cannot explain. What is his thought? Is his thought just, loved, or both? It is just since, out of love, he creates us in his own image and likeness. Since we are his creatures, he knows exactly who we are, and not that we know exactly who God is. This, therefore, in today’s first reading, Isaiah reminds us of the words of God saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” When thing happens the way we want, we are proud of it; but when it does not happen the way we want, we might complain that God is absent in our lives. We doubt the existence of God. Is God absent in our lives or rather we distance ourselves from God? Isaiah invites us saying, “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.” The question is how do we know where God is to find him and to call him? Is God up there in the sky? In the Church or football stadium? In the bar or our house? In school or at work? In the park or the theater? Perhaps, God knows where we are, so he finds us and calls us, but why have we not been able to listen to his call to follow him? We don’t know where God is, how do we know to call on him when he seems so near to us?

In today’s Gospel, Matthew captures a series of pictures in which Jesus portrays the Kingdom of God as like a generous landowner who looks out for the needs of others and has mercy on those who are lost and forgotten. He doesn’t wait for them to come to him, but he goes out to seek for them. He goes out very early in the morning, from the beginning of creation, God has gone out to bring us into existence. He then finds us and seeks out for us when we are lost. The moment that Adam and Eve disobey God to eat the forbidden fruit; the moment that the prostitute lady is about to be stoned to death because of her sin; the moment that the first pope of the Church, Simon Peter, about to sink into the deep sea; the moment that we sin: the sins of the flesh, the sins of the eyes, the sins of greedy, stealing, and many other sins that we have committed, the moment that God is always there to look out for us; to invite us to come to work for his field. Just as those are invited to come to work in God’s field reported in today’s Gospel, we are also invited to come to work in God’s field, to participate in the life of the Church, to extend our hands to help those in need, to be kind to one another, to provide a listening ear to one another, to our parents, teachers and those that come into our lives. The question is: Do we remember to give thanks to God, to express our gratitude to God who so loves us and allows us to work in his field? Or do we get zealous or envious towards others when they receive more blessings than us?

The landowner asks the foreman, reported in today’s Gospel, saying, “Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.” This causes someone in the group to say, “It’s not fair!” Does it sound familiar to us? We try to be good but struggle all along in our lives, but others cheat, lie, steal, and have a sneaky life, and yet, have a better condition of living than us. People died at the World Trade Center, during the pandemic of COVID 19, and innocent people died in wars, is it fair for them to die that way? If God is a just God, why have we deserved his forgiveness time after time? Or rather, God is a loving and merciful God who is always ready to seek out us, to find us, to call us, and above all, to love us always; but have we had the courage to follow him? Do we recognize our need for God by surrendering our will to his will and following his thoughts, his teaching, and the Church’s teaching?

In today’s second reading, recognizing the need for Christ, Saint Paul beautifully states his firm belief saying, “For to me life is Christ.” Just in him, through him, and for him that all things come into the existence that St. Paul firmly believes, we are invited to focus our lives in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ, to understand that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but rather his thoughts are his great love for us that he comes to us so to save us from our sins.

The question is how do we know God’s thoughts to follow his thoughts in our Christian life? We cannot control the way God blesses others, but we can show God’s grace to others. Instead of getting envious and zealous towards others for the blessings that they have received, we are invited to express our gratitude to God in our daily lives for the blessings that we have received. How do we express our gratitude to God in our daily life if it’s not to avoid sins, to be kind to one another, to share our blessings with the needy, and to pray more often? What have we done in working in God’s field as Christians? The decision is yours.