Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Judges 9:6-15; Matthew 20:1-16)
The two readings today tell different stories in a similar
way. Both are parables. The first reading warns of a cutthroat whom a
people takes as its ruler. The gospel
tells of God, the King of the universe, whose justice is always tempered by
mercy.
Abimelech is one of seventy-plus sons of the judge Jerubbaal. When his father dies, he connives with the
people of Shechem to kill his brothers and rule Israel alone. He is described as a buckthorn whose fire
will destroy the innocent. God will not
let him have the upper hand very long.
On another bloodthirsty mission, Abimelech is mortally wounded. A woman casts a millstone down on his head.
In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, Jesus
describes the ever-clement justice of God.
He says that in God’s kingdom, every man who works receives enough pay
to care for his family. We want to see
our leaders of church, state, and industry to emulate such merciful justice.
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