Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 20, 2026
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o’clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The full readings of the day from the Lectionary are available here.
My first response upon hearing this passage was a childlike reaction: “that ain’t fair.” This was my go-to phrase whenever I felt that someone received more than they deserved and I believed I should have received a greater share, no matter what was at stake. Even growing into adulthood, this sense of fairness remains with us. We all expect to be treated fairly and to be rewarded in proportion to what we contribute. On deeper reflection, however, this expectation sometimes leads us to the conclusion that life itself is not fair.
Yet this belief that “life ain’t fair” is not the whole truth. When we consider God’s grace, we see the ultimate expression of fairness. God shares grace with everyone, regardless of how much we believe we deserve it. When we reflect on this, it becomes clear that God is willing to give grace to each of us, and in doing so, we all receive far more than we deserve. It does not matter if we have worked eight hours or only one, or if we have prayed every day or just once; what truly matters is that God loves us all equally. Our reward in heaven is to be with God, not to achieve a “higher place.” We will all be with the Lord and Jesus, loved equally by him.
Heaven is not like a Taylor Swift concert or a Super Bowl game where seats are tiered from the best to the worst. Instead, we all have ringside seats; we are all by the Lord’s side. What could be more fair than that? We should not only be thankful for what we have received, but also for being given so much more than we deserve. This abundance is the very goodness of God’s grace.
Prayer
Lord God, we are thankful that we may come before you, confused, even puzzled at times, at our failures and weaknesses in serving you. We know that if we seek forgiveness, we shall find it. You have assured us that even the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner turning back to the Lord of love and forgiveness. Hear our prayer, Lord, and look not at our failures, but at our hearts that desire to be one with you. Let us honor you in word and deed, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon is the first native-born Korean priest, and is patron saint of Korea. He was martyred with nearly 10,000 other Koreans, mostly lay people, before Christianity was tolerated in Korea in 1884. Today, we venerate nearly 100 of these Koreans who have been declared saints, including Andrew and a layman, Paul Chong Hasang.
The first Christians in Korea were baptized by invading Japanese soldiers in the late 1500s. The faith slowly grew, and then in 1777, several Christian texts made their way to Korea and converted some scholars. When a missionary priest visited the country more than a decade later, he found 4,000 Christians living without the sacraments. They had never seen a priest before.
The Korean monarchy feared Christianity as a colonizing force and repressed it with several violent persecutions between 1791 and 1866. Andrew’s parents were converts to the faith, and his father, grandfather, and several uncles were executed for it. Andrew’s mother was left destitute and had to rely on begging for survival.
Andrew was baptized at the age of 15, and soon after left for Macao, China—1,200 miles away—to enter a seminary there. After further missionary work, he was ordained a priest and returned to Korea to minister and evangelize. Two years later, at the age of 25, he was captured as he made his way along the Korean shoreline to find safe and secret passages for other missionaries. He was tortured and beheaded on September 26, 1846.
Before he was killed, Andrew wrote his fellow Christians: “We have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name only and not in fact?”
Paul Chong Hasang was also the son of converts to Christianity. He was born in 1795, and though several members of his family were also martyred, he also sought the faith. He took a job serving a government interpreter, which allowed him to travel to Beijing. There, he asked the bishop to establish a diocese in Korea and send priests, which happened in 1825.
As a lay leader and married man, Paul was a unifying figure for Christians and advocated for them to the Korean government. When another persecution broke out, he was arrested and tried. He gave a written statement to the judge, who read it and said, "You are right in what you have written; but the king forbids this religion, it is your duty to renounce it." Paul replied, "I have told you that I am a Christian, and will be one until my death." He was tortured, then placed on a cross and died. His mother, Cecelia Yu Sosa, was also martyred that same year from injuries following repeated whippings.
When he visited Korea in 1984, Pope St. John Paul II canonized Andrew and Paul, along with 98 other Koreans and three French missionary priests. Of the group, 47 were lay women and 45 were lay men.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and the martyrs who died for the faith in Korea, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions is available for use under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Last accessed April 2, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
