Today's gospel is an excellent one for teaching us about missionary discipleship. We all remain disciples under the one Master. No one generation, socio-economic group, ethnicity or other description of social organization has complete ownership of the Church. This includes how long we have been Catholic or lived in a particular parish. We are called to serve in the mission given us by the Lord. The danger is that we settle in our comfort zone and become self-serving. In the parable the workers with the sharpest elbows, who managed to get to the front of the queue to obtain work for the day, seem oblivious to the fact that other workers may have had bills to pay and families to feed. Their focus is on themselves, "Or are you envious because I am generous?" (Mt 20: 15) Elsewhere the Lord the gospel tells us: "So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, so, 'We are worthless slaves, we have done only what we ought to have done'." (Lk 17: 10) The words of St Paul to the Philippians is relevant to us today: "Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind in the faith of the gospel." (Phil 1: 27)
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