For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/083007.shtml
Whenever I drive a two-lane highway, I always get behind a large truck that is hard to get around. A more virtuous man would just drive patiently behind the truck, or wait for a safe opportunity to pass, or for the truck to turn off the highway. But this is not what I do. Instead, I impatiently try to sneak pass the truck, so I can continue unabated toward my destination. Invariably, when this large truck pulls in front of me, I wonder to myself. Why didn’t you leave a minute earlier, or even 30 seconds earlier, instead of waiting until the last moment to leave? If you had left earlier, surely this truck would not be in your way.
Admittedly, this story has more to do with my lack of patience than with today’s Gospel, but I think today’s Gospel gives us the same sense of urgency that I feel when that truck pulls in front of me. There is to be some spiritual progress made today, some gift of grace that God wants to give us, that cannot be postponed to tomorrow. In discipleship, tomorrow is always too late; for tonight the thief may come and steal what we need to live, and tomorrow, that truck might pull in front of us to prevent our getting to the place where we should have arrived the day before. Yes, it is true that our Lord is patient and merciful, and it is true that He may give the gift of a full day’s wage to one who only works an hour in his vineyard. But today’s Gospel is urgent and clear: foolish is the one who presumes that his master is long delayed; the habit of procrastination must be resisted at all costs.
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