There is not a cookie cutter approach to sainthood. When you study the lives of the saints you will see that each of them has a different story to tell. Some of them were pius from a young age while others led a life of sinfulness only to discover God. Despite the many differences in the life of the saints one reality remains the same and that is that they came to trust in Christ Jesus and they dared to follow after Him in how they lived and ordered their life.
Each of us must become convinced that our ultimate goal is the Kingdom of Heaven. If we realize this to be our ultimate goal we would be crazy to allow anything to get in the way of achieving this goal. As difficult as the trials in this life may be they are fleeting compared to the reality of eternal life. There is nothing on this earth that I would want to commit myself to which might jeopardize my relationship to God and the achieving of this ultimate goal.
The non-angelic saints are human just like you and me. Nevertheless, they heard the call of Christ at various points in their life and they chose to follow after it. If we remember Saint Paul was once known as Saul and he was a persecutor of Christians and yet He encounter Christ on the road to Damascus and was converted. There was also Saint Augustine who lived a life of pleasure in his youth, but eventually came to be converted to the truth of the Gospel.
These saints serve as a reminder to us that no matter how deeply intrenched that our life may seem to be in sin that there is always hope. So too in our parable the landowner came to these various individuals and extended unto them the opportunity to go to work within the vineyard. Eventually they came to be paid the same reward not because the landowner was concerned with economics, but everlasting life.
This parable reminds us of the call of the Lord to be found at work within the vineyard. Some of you have already heard this call and have committed your life to it. Some of you go through the motions of faith without paying any attention to the voice of the Lord. Others are so deeply intrenched in sin that they see no hope to being lifted out of it. It is my hope that this parable will assist us in seeing the necessity of following after the Lord by the way in which we live and order our life on this earth.
There is truly an urgency to this parable because there will eventually come and end to the days work. Those who chose not to go to work will not receive pay for they will not receive Everlasting Life. It is only those who chose to heed the invitation of the landowner who will receive it. May we realize that the Lord invites each us to follow after Him, but we still have the freedom to rebel or not being hasty to commit. If we realize that Eternal Life is the pearl of great price why would we not want to commit to the Gospel and live?
This day let us be convinced of the reality and thus head into the vineyard of the Lord and always be found at work in His abundant Harvest.
