Ministers of the Eleventh Hour
Homily on Wednesday, 20th Week in O.T., 23 August 2023
Last May I had a chance to visit an old friend named Piero. He is Italian and I met him in Italy around 25 years ago when I was still doing my studies in Rome. I came to know him when I spent my summer apostolate in their town called Ficulle (about 150 kms. away from Rome). As a married man he was blessed with three children and served as a lay minister in their parish, closely helping the parish priest in the pastoral ministry. He was also studying theology in between work, family and ministry. What is most interesting about him is this: the following year, his bishop ordained him as a permanent deacon so that he could do more ministries in collaboration with the elderly parish priest who had been working there for more than 25 years already without any priest assistant at all to help him. Well, we can say that Piero is just one among the many very “late vocations” in the Church. Despite his advanced age nothing could stop him from being called to work in the Lord’s vineyard as an ordained minister.
Today we continue to hear Jesus’ teachings on vocation, esp. on the importance of answering the call to work in the vineyard of the Lord anytime. In the parable narrated by Jesus the owner of the land looked at his vineyard and saw how much work was urgently needed to be done. And so very early in the morning he already started hiring people to work in his vineyard for a just wage. (It wasn’t specified what type of work they were to do, whether preparing the ground, planting the grape seeds, pruning the vine or harvesting the grapes.) It seems to us that the urgent work to be done was so vast that the owner had to go back to the town several times during the day to hire some more laborers who had not been hired yet. He did the same even at the last hour before closing time. The good news is at the end of the day’s work, each one of the workers received the same just wage, including those who worked only for one hour.
What is this parable teaching us? What is Jesus telling us today? First, every worker deserves a just wage from their employer whether in the civil society or in the Church. Second, there is a vast work really needed to done in the Church as symbolized by the Lord’s vineyard, it could be preaching God’s Word and teaching the Gospel values, it could forming people and communities or building structures; it could be healing the sick, or defending the poor and the oppressed; it could be safeguarding the vulnerable, or nourishing, guiding and shepherding the young; it could be celebrating the liturgy and the sacraments. This is just to mention a few. I believe this is why even today the Lord calls many to come and work in his vineyard, and he calls not only the young ones but also the not so young including the “young-once-upon-a-time” (the elderly).
Fr Andy Satura was already a CPA and a young professional when he was called to become a Salesian several years ago. Now he is our Provincial Economer here in the South. Br Tony Caspellan was a teacher in DBTI Makati and was already in his forty’s when he became our batchmate in the Novitiate way back in 1984. Now he is still actively working as a Salesian Brother in Makati. Fr Ante Sabelita was working as a manager in Bayantel when he was inspired to enter the seminary after attending the Vocation Jamboree some years ago. Now he is an ordained priest assigned in DBTC.
I conclude with the story with which I began regarding Deacon Piero. The most amazing part of his story is actually this: In 2006, the year after his wife died, some years after his wife died, he got ordained as a Catholic priest, and was appointed the parish priest of his hometown in Ficulle. Last May when I visited him, I found out that he was already 85 years old, but still driving his own car, celebrating Masses and administering other sacraments, with his children serving as lectors and his grand children as altar servers and keyboard players. Isn’t that beautiful and amazing?
Brothers and sisters, singles and married, young professionals and retirees, with so much work to do in the Lord’s vineyard, Jesus continues to call even at the eleventh hour. If you hear his voice, do not be afraid to say YES. GiGsss!
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