20/08/2021

Today the readings present me with difficulties. The Parable  of the Trees reads like an Aesop Fable and is I suppose typical of time and place. As a story it has a nice flow to it and the first chosen all provide the same answer that they do not want to lose what they have for the doubtful pleasure of ruling others who are all taller than they are . The Israelites are a stiff necked  necked nation and the thorn who knows this is so, warns them that if they chose him they will have no protection for a fire that starts so easily in a thorn swiftly grows to an inferno consuming them all. 

Jesus is again in his "this is how it is "mode. We cannot understand the injustice perpetrated on those who had toiled throughout the heat of the day; but the gifts of the Lord are his to give. We have to accept them not as injustices but as the the reality of God's Mercy.. 

I think that from a human standpoint this parable does describe an injustice. In fact, as Jesus says no harm has been done to the first comers, they have still received their just compensation as it was offered to them in the morning.

This how it is. God's Mercy and rewards are his to give. None of us can achieve the perfection God offers to us without his aid. That is what the Incarnation is all about.

Dear Lord you know how easily I succumb to well known temptations please let me sincerely abandon this attachment to the pleasures of the flesh and let me empty my soul of all falseness thinking that you will always forgive me. Let me become your servant in all that I do.