Scripture Reading Reflection
By Fr. Andrew Kelly
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY ORDINAL TIME – SEPT. 21, 2014
The reason the believing community often sings “Amazing Grace” is because the community believes just how “Amazing” God’s grace is. In Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 20:1-16) workers who worked only one hour were awestruck when they received a full day’s wage. The workers did not deserve or merit such grace and generosity. But that is why grace is “Amazing.”
Unfortunately not everyone is singing “Amazing Grace.” Instead members are sulking in jealousy and envy because God’s grace overflowed in abundant generosity toward those who had not “…borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”
God confronts these unhappy people: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Even God is “Amazed” that such jealousy and envy could exist in a community.
God desires the whole community to be “Amazed” that everyone in the community has been touched by God’s grace. God desires everyone singing:
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”
When that singing begins, that too will be God’s gift of “Amazing Grace.”
(Father Andrew Kelly is a retired priest of the Diocese of Davenport.)
