Our professor in Spirituality, the Reverend Father Roberto Manansala, OFM, said humility and obedience are the two attributes that holy people have. Humility and obedience are essential in our life as religious, as consecrated people.
Without humility and obedience, it would be tough to accept and do the Will of God the Father. As Father Manansala pointed out, Padre Pio, in all humility, obeyed his superior when he (Padre Pio) was asked to refrain from celebrating Mass publicly during their time.
Humility and obedience are all we need to be able to follow the Gospel. This Sunday, we are reminded to focus on the Lord, as we are all called to be His followers and disciples, to walk in the path He has shown us all through His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Church.
As part of the Mystical Body, the Church, by virtue of our Baptism, we are united with all the believers and all the people of God. All of us in the religious life have been called and chosen by the Lord, and as religious, we are to continuously respond to the Lord’s call and embrace His path, to do His Will and to carry out His works in every word and action that we say and do. Our existence and purpose in life are to be true in following and serving the Lord our God wholeheartedly in all things.
As missionaries, we are to call on all the people of God to turn away from their wickedness and sins, and to embrace once again their loving God and Master, following Him in all faith and obedience, entrusting themselves to His Wisdom and Providence, and not to question or doubt His will and ways, because ultimately many things are beyond our thoughts and understanding, our ability to comprehend and for us to realize fully in our lives.
That is why we should always trust in the Lord and follow Him all our lives, doing whatever we can to proclaim His truth and carry out His works all the time.
One may indeed desire to do certain things in life, but ultimately, it is by God’s grace and guidance, and His will that will happen in the end. As we answer God’s call, we entrust ourselves to Him, committing ourselves to the path that He has shown and guided us all onto. As Christians, we are called to walk the path of righteousness and virtue, and the path through which each of us is expected to live our lives according to God’s ways and embody our faith in our every action, word and deed.
In our Gospel today, we hear the parable of the workers, in which the master and owner of a vineyard went forth to the streets and various places, calling upon people of all sorts to come and work in his vineyard. The landowner in the parable represents the Lord, our God and Master, and the vineyard represents this world, where we all labor and work.
We hear that all those who answered the landowner’s call and worked in his vineyard were rewarded with the same amount, whether those who started their work early or came at the very last hour. It must be better understood that the Lord Himself, having called all of us, will give us all the same gift since we are all equally beloved by Him.
Hence, we should not live our lives and faith comparing ourselves with others or thinking that just because we responded to the Lord’s call earlier, we are superior to or better than those who answered it later in their lives.
We must constantly remind ourselves that we have been saved by God’s grace and love, not by our own power, might, or abilities.