Gospel (Mt 20,1-16) - At that time, Jesus told his disciples this parable: «The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed with them for a denarius a day and sent them into his vineyard. Then going out around nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the square, unemployed, and said to them: “You too go into the vineyard; I will give you what is right." And they went. He went out again about noon, and about three, and did the same. Going out again around five o'clock, he saw others standing there and said to them: "Why do you stand here all day doing nothing?". They replied: "Because no one has hired us." And he said to them, “You too go into the vineyard.” »When it was evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his farmer: “Call the workers and give them their wages, starting from the last to the first”. When those of five in the afternoon came, they each received a denarius. When the first ones arrived, they thought they would receive more. But they also each received a denarius. When they collected it, however, they murmured against the master, saying: "These last ones worked only for an hour and you treated them like us, who bore the burden of the day and the heat." But the master, answering one of them, said: “Friend, I do you no wrong. Have you not agreed with me for a denarius? Take yours and leave. But I also want to give to the latter as much as to you: can't I do with my things what I want? Or are you envious because I am good?”. Thus the last will be first and the first last."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The parable reported by Matthew must have seemed very strange to Jesus' listeners: it was, in fact, totally distant from common wage justice. The gesture of the owner of the vineyard who gives the same pay to both those who had worked all day and those who had worked for just an hour is truly unusual. The narrative develops around the initiative of a winemaker who is worried for the whole day about hiring workers for his vineyard. During the day he leaves the house five times to call the workers. With the first workers, called at dawn, he agreed on a monetary compensation (it was the ordinary pay for a working day); he still goes out at nine in the morning, then at noon, at three and finally at five. The response that these workers give to his invitation ("no one has hired us") makes us think of many young and less young people who are unemployed, not only or not so much in paid work, but in working to build a life of solidarity. Everyone is ultimately given the same salary. Jesus does not want to impart a lesson in social justice, nor to present one of the common masters of this world who he rewards according to the services given. He presents an absolutely exceptional character who treats his subordinates outside the rules. God does not do injustice. It is the breadth of his goodness that pushes him to give to everyone according to their need. God's justice does not operate with an abstract principle of fairness, but on the needs of his children. There is great wisdom here. And the reward given to everyone is the consolation that comes from being called to work for the Lord's vineyard; it doesn't matter if you have been in the vineyard for a long or short time.