By Fr. Adolf Washington
God satisfies our needs, not our greed.
Quite often, unhappiness in life is not because be something but because we measure our possessions in terms of what others have. The Economy of God’s Grace, Mercy and Love is inscrutable and should not be subject to discussion.
Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who went out early in the morning to find workers for his vineyard. He went later in the morning, noon and late evening too, and got workers to work in the vineyard.
When it was payment time, he paid a silver coin (a denarii) to the men who came at the last hour to work. The other laborers who came earlier in the day eagerly expected to be paid much more than that. But to their dismay, they too were given just one silver coin, a day’s wages. They grumbled at the master.
But the Master said “Friend, I have not been unjust to you. Did we not agree on a denarius (a silver coin) a day? So take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last the same as I gave to you. Don’t I have the right to do as I please with my money? Why are you envious when I am kind?” (Mathew 20:12-15)
This same bitter experience happen to us when we covet other people’s goods and property. We are not thankful for what God has already given us. We fail to see the goodness of God when we covet.
Spiritual writer Lehman Strauss says “God’s Grace is everything for nothing. It is helping the helpless, going to those who cannot come in their own strength”
A friend went to Alexander the Great asking for money. The man asked for ten talents of money, but Alexander had fifty talents delivered to him. When the man returned and said that ten talents would be sufficient, Alexander replied “Ten are sufficient for you to take, but not sufficient for me to give.”
We agree that an orphan needs more love than a child with both parents, an estranged wife needs more consolation than a happily married wife, a crippled beggar needs to be shown more generosity than a wealthy crippled man…God’s grace and mercy works in similar ways. His mercy, love and generosity has visited the generations that have gone before us and continues to visit humanity.
The best way to respond to God’s grace and mercy is to be thankful for what the Lord has already given us and for what he has already done for us. Begin the day with thanks. End it with thanks.