Eleven

Eleven.


The phrase 'the eleventh hour' comes from this parable, from Matthew 20 ('eleventh hour' is translated here as '5 o'clock' - the eleventh hour of a twelve-hour working day):

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. ³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; ⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. ⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ ⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. ¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. ¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. ¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”


It's a reading that reminds us of the generosity of God. Like with the parable of the lost sheep, the overabundance of God's grace and love does not always seem, at first glance, to be 'fair' or 'equal'... but then, lots of what is truly fair can seem unequal because we have become used to the comfort and privilege we have found ourselves with, and in...


...as well as this, this reading invites us to consider how we can be generous (or, who might be generous towards us, if and when we are in need).

A prayer of St Ignatius:

Lord teach me to be generous; to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will. Amen. 


♫ An 11th century chant, today - Hermann of Reichenau - Salve Regina