God is here even now
Most of us wake up and start being useful immediately. God does not begin the day with you that way. He was already here before your eyes opened, and he did not come to take an account of you.
Take one slow breath now, and let it go. Then another. This minute belongs to no one. There is nothing to accomplish in it. Only you, and God, who is not hurrying and is not watching the clock.
Today's guiding word
“I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” Ezekiel 34:11
He does not say he will wait for them. He says I myself will go. In today's Gospel the same movement repeats five times: the owner goes out at dawn, then at nine, at noon, at three, and again at five. He never stands at the gate. He walks out.
Step toward the light in God’s presence
In the morning the marketplace is still full of hope. Whoever stands there believes that today someone will take him in. By noon the hope thins out. And by five o'clock, while everyone else is deep in the day's work, standing around is no longer waiting. It is shame. That is when someone finally asks them: why have you been standing here idle all day? Their answer is one sentence, with no excuse in it. Because no one has hired us.
You know that sentence. It may not be about work for you. It may be about the conversation you weren't invited into. The table where no place was set. The thing you are good at, which nobody has ever asked you for. Some pain comes not from what you did, but from what was never asked of you. Slowly a person starts to believe he is surplus.
The owner does not argue with that. He offers no correction, no lecture about trying harder. He answers with a single line: you also go into the vineyard. That is all. He does not repair their self-esteem; he gives them back their place.
Then evening comes, and with it the scandal. Everyone receives one denarius. The man who worked twelve hours and the man who worked one. The grumbling makes perfect sense, because this really is not payroll. Yet the owner's answer knocks out the beam we build our days on: are you envious because I am generous?
This is where you decide what you think God is. If what he gives looks like wages to you, you will spend your life measuring, and there will always be someone who got more for less. If it looks like a gift, you are free. Ezekiel says the same thing in another image: the shepherds fed themselves, the flock scattered, and God does not promise better shepherds. He promises himself. I myself will go, and after that I will look after them.
Notice what he hands out at the end of the day. Not more work, not a promotion. He offers rest to your soul. The denarius is not a prize. It is closer to the supper set in front of you when you come home, whether you did much or little. Saint Bernard, whose feast the Hungarian Church keeps today, put the whole thing in one line: I love because I love. Love looks for no cause outside itself, and waits for no payment.
Call someone into the vineyard
Think today of someone near you who is standing around. The one left out of conversations, the one nobody calls, the one whose knowledge is never asked for. There is such a person at your workplace, in your family, or in your parish. We simply don't look that way.
Go to them today. One question is enough: ask their opinion, invite them for coffee, ask them for help with something they are good at. Don't try to lift their mood; give them back their place. And if it is you who has been standing in the marketplace all day, say it to God plainly, the way those men said it. He goes out in the eleventh hour too.
I praise you, living God
My heavenly Father, who walks out to the marketplace five times
I praise you for who you are. You do not sit inside the house waiting for someone to knock. Again and again you step out onto the road and look to see whether anyone is still there. You are the only landowner whose vineyard is never so full that one person has to be left out.
I magnify you for what you do. You do not pay by the hour; you give out of love, and that makes everyone rich in your house. Blessed are you, because with you I am neither behind nor too late. Thank you that when I arrive, you don't ask where I have been. You make room.
Lord Jesus Christ, who told this parable
I praise you for who you are. You are the good shepherd who does not count the flock but goes after the one who is missing. You sent no one in your place. You set out yourself, on your own feet, all the way to the cross, to the farthest place I had scattered to.
I magnify you for what you did. You spoke to the thief beside you later than the eleventh hour, and still gave him the whole thing, not a fraction. Blessed are you, because with you lateness does not shut the gate. Thank you for looking at my face instead of my record.
Holy Spirit, who takes the measuring tape out of my hand
I praise you for who you are. You are the one who quiets the grumbling in me when someone else receives more. It is from you that I even notice how constantly I compare. You turn my eyes from the other person back to the giver.
I magnify you for what you are doing today. You settle my heart where until now it only counted. You open my eyes to the person standing idle beside me. Move through me today, so that I live from love and not for wages, and so that there is enough quiet in me to hear someone say: no one has called me.
Holy Trinity, one God, who pays no wages but gives himself
I praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one living God, with whom even the last hour counts as a full day. The Father walks out for me; the Son finds me where I scattered to; the Spirit lifts from me the measuring tape I keep using on myself. Glory to you, because you give not what I earned but what I need. Glory to you in the place where I feel surplus today, and you make room. Glory to you, because what waits at the end of the day is not a reckoning but a table set, and rest for my soul. Amen.
Here I am, Lord
Here I am, Lord. I brought no achievements with me, only this morning. Thank you that I don't have to earn the minute I am spending with you now.
I confess: I often mistake your love for wages. I keep count of what I have done and measure it against others. Today I put that habit down in front of you. Take the measuring tape out of my hand.
And I confess this too, because it hurts: there is a place in me where I stand around all day feeling that nobody called me. I am not asking you to explain it. Just come out there and find me.
I entrust today to you: my family, my work, the decisions I cannot see yet. Let me notice someone who has been left out, and give me the courage to walk over. Let my mouth be an invitation, not a verdict. What you give is enough, because you are in it. Amen.
Stay quiet for two minutes. Do nothing, ask for nothing. Just let God come out to where you are standing.
What you can also sing today
Today's responsorial psalm was this: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.” This song sings that same twenty-third psalm, and by the end it asks for nothing at all. It simply names what is already following you: goodness and mercy, all your days. Don't play it as background music. While it lasts, tell God the one place where you are standing alone today.
Psalm 23 (Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy)
Shane & Shane · a setting of Psalm 23 · “surely goodness, surely mercy, right beside me all my days”
▶Listen on YouTubeGod does not wait at the gate; he comes out to find me. Today I will walk over to someone who is standing alone.
View the sources used
- Gospel of the day · Mt 20:1-16 – the workers in the vineyard: “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” – “Because no one has hired us”; everyone receives one denarius, “are you envious because I am generous?”
- First reading · Ez 34:1-11 – the shepherds fed themselves and the flock scattered; “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them”. Responsorial psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want” (Ps 23)
- Cistercian House, Baja · 19 Aug – “I offer rest to your soul”
- Regnum Christi · 19 Aug – “Working for God”: there is always a chance to begin again; everything is gift, there is nothing in our nature that could claim grace; the generosity of God
- A Miracle Every Day · 19 Aug – “Be someone's miracle today”: the little girl and the turquoise necklace; everything is gift and grace, generosity opens the door of blessing
- Saint Bernard · On Loving God – “I love because I love; I love that I may love”
- Jesus Calling · 18 Aug – David found strength in the Lord his God when everyone turned against him (1 Samuel 30:6)
- Daily Hope, Rick Warren · 18 Aug – “A Family Reunion For Eternity”: by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8-9)
- First15 · 18 Aug – “Why do we struggle to hear God?”: God is still speaking; the question is whether we make room to listen
Today's companion starts from the day's liturgy (Mt 20:1-16 and Ez 34:1-11), and the message from the Cistercian house in Baja gives it its closing note. The Barsi Balázs–Telek Péter-Pál reflection had not yet posted today's entry when we looked this morning (the blog still showed 18 August on top), so we did not build on it; the Regnum Christi meditation for today and Saint Bernard's own words stand in its place. The Daily Hope, First15 and Jesus Calling morning emails had not arrived yet for today, so we drew on yesterday's editions, marked with their date.
What we carry on together
Yesterday ended where your strength runs out: impossible for us, not for God. Today shows what God does with that impossibility. He does not wait for you to arrive, he sets out and walks to where you are standing.