Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel Matthew 20:1:16 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)
Jesus
said to his disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went
out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his
vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others
standing idle in the market-place, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and
whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the
same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found
others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired
us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of
the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their
wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh
hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they
thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the
master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have
made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the
scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing
you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I
choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’
So the last will be first, and the first last.”
This caused considerable controversy in France because Jacques Fesch had been executed by guillotine for the murder of Jean-Baptiste Vergne, 35, a widowed policeman and father of a daughter aged 4, on 25 February 1954. There was no doubt whatever of Jacques Fesch's guilt nor did he show any remorse at his trial or after being sentenced.
How did this man come to be proposed for beatification by a French cardinal who was born Jewish and whose mother was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1943?
During the more than three years that he was in prison, in solitary confinement, Jacques Fesch experienced a profound religious conversion. We know this from the letters he wrote and from the diary he kept during the last months before his execution. Two persons who influenced him were the prison Catholic chaplain, Fr Devoyed OP and his lawyer, a devout Catholic, named Baudet who expressed his concern for his client's immortal soul.
Jacques Fesch's conversion - he had been baptised a Catholic as an infant - was a gradual one, beginning with reading a book about Our Lady in October 1954 and coming to fruition by the following March, Around that time he wrote: At the end of my first year in prison, a powerful wave of emotion swept over me, causing deep and brutal suffering. Within the space of a few hours, I came into possession of faith, with absolute certainty. I believed … Grace came to me. A great joy flooded my soul, and above all a deep peace.
The Prophet Isaiah in the First Reading today speaks precisely to the situation in which Jacques Fesch found himself through his own sins: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:6-7).
In the light of that we can interpret the parable in today's gospel as telling us that God's mercy extends to all who will accept it, even to the eleventh hour, to the very end of our lives. This is not something to take for granted so that we can carry on sinning until the last moment. That is the sin of presumption. But neither is it something to see as impossible, that we are beyond God's mercy. That is the sin of despair.
A month before his death Jacques wrote: The Lord continues to fill me with gifts and I feel my heart overflow with love, and my lips with thanksgiving. Shortly before his execution he wrote: In five hours I will see Jesus.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy
Traditional Latin Mass
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 09-24-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6. Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46.
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