When we receive infinitely more than we deserve we will not complain
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November 3, 2017
Father Eric Chapa is the Parochial Vicar at St. Pius X Church in Corpus Christi
When we celebrated the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, I was reminded strongly of the image of him that always comes to my mind on his feast day. It is his statue at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome, which has enormous and distinct statues of all of the apostles. Matthew’s depicts him holding up a manuscript or book, presumably his own Gospel. Underneath his right foot is a bag of coins, sculpted to appear as if it had simply fallen to the ground and Matthew is stepping on it as if to dismiss it as simply equal in value to the dirt.St. Matthew, as you know was a tax collector, and that probably also meant that he was one of the most educated apostles, in the sense that he was fully employed in a trade that presumably required a fair bit of training. It is true, that trickery—at best—and thievery—at worst—were common mischief for tax collectors, and we can assume that Matthew at times was just as guilty as the rest. What always struck me about this one particular statue of him is that he is shown as having renounced the wealth of the world and taken up Christ as his only prize. The money, for him, is now where it belongs: on the level of dirt.
We live in such a transactional society that is very quick to expect something in return for the right amount of either time or money put forward. Yet when it comes to our relationship with God, this attitude —although it may ring true for earthly matters—falls to exactly where St. Matthew’s money fell, right to the ground…thrown away to the dust and dirt. Because that expectation does not apply to heaven as it applies to earth at times.
What, then, is the “economy” of heaven? It is illustrated in the Gospel parable, where workers and laborers of all sorts of experience and age, each worked different hours on a given day. Some had sweated and toiled all the day long, while some showed up midway through the day, while some still perhaps showed up towards the end of the day when the sun was maybe less oppressive and the work was easier both in quantity and quality. And when every single one of them is paid the same, the ones who worked all day began to complain, to say the least.
It is natural and human to sympathize with the complaints. But, what is being shown here is not how earth works but how heaven works. Everything about who God is to us is entirely a gift on his part. None of the blessings in this life or the next have been earned on our part. All has been given in equal and infinite measure to each of us: “equal” because salvation and eternity is all of our inheritance equally, and yet “infinite” because unlike the wages dealt in the Gospel, God’s everlasting gift to us cannot be quantified.
So, on one hand, it is easy to complain along with the workers in the Gospel that we are on the side that seems to deserve more for more hours worked. Yet, when it comes to our spiritual health, we are not on that side…at all! We are ALL on the side of the ones who deserve less, not more. We have sinned in ways that would continue to shock and shame us if not for God’s mercy. We deserve less than we have gotten, and will continue to receive…well into eternity. So, can we really complain? We cannot. At the end of our earthly lives when we do receive infinitely more than we deserve, we will not…not one bit!
Blessings.
