Daily Catholic Lectio
Wed, 19 Aug 2026
XX Week in Ordinary Time
Eze 34:1-11. Mt 20:1-16
Who Is Right?
Today’s Gospel gives us a parable found only in Matthew. All the workers, from those who came in the morning to those who came in the evening, receive the same wage. This reading disturbs us. It makes us want to say, “This is injustice!” It also makes us calm ourselves and say, “No injustice has been done.” It also makes us ask, “Could the landowner not have shown mercy to all? Why does he treat the first workers with justice and the last workers with mercy?”
The background of this parable may be the division in Matthew’s community. After the resurrection of Jesus, the apostles first preached the Gospel to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. So, a division may have arisen: “We came first; you came later.” “Are we greater, or are you greater?” Matthew gives this parable as an answer to that question.
The vineyard can be understood as the Church, the new Israel. If we see the parable from the eyes of those who came first, it looks like injustice. If we see it from the eyes of those who came last, it looks like mercy. If we see it from the eyes of the landowner, the work of the vineyard is more important than the money. Therefore, he gives a full wage even to those who worked less. To some he gives justice: the agreed wage. To others he gives mercy: a full wage for little work.
The tension between justice and mercy is not easy to solve.
If the world runs only on mercy, order may disappear. If the world runs only on justice, all may become machines. Life moves between the two.
The landowner asks, “Are you envious because I am generous?” But if the worker had asked, “Are you angry because I ask for justice?” what would the landowner have answered?
The worker who came in the morning goes away feeling that injustice has been done to him. The worker who came in the evening goes away rejoicing that the master has shown mercy to him. Life often treats us like this. We cannot always ask, “Why this?” Beyond justice and mercy, life keeps moving in its own way.
Today’s first reading speaks against shepherds who feed themselves and not the sheep. Through Ezekiel, God condemns leaders who use their position for themselves and ignore the weak, the sick, the injured, the strayed, and the lost. God says, “I myself will look after and tend my sheep.” This is both justice and mercy. It is justice against selfish shepherds. It is mercy toward forgotten sheep.
Today two questions remain before us.
First, am I ready to stop boasting as if my life is only the result of my merit, and learn that much of my life has happened by grace?
Second, when I see those whom no one has hired, no one has noticed, and no one has welcomed, is my heart moved by mercy? Or do I blame them as lazy and unworthy?
The questions remains the same: What is right? Justice or Mercy?
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
A Yesni Prays Initiative
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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