God Bless You.

Analise, I guess my prayerful reflection about comparing yourself to those around you is: Where does it end? If your neighbor has twice as much stuff as you, and a fire burns down his house and wipes out everything he owns, does this mean you’re suddenly happier? If a fire wipes out everything you both own, does that mean you’re happy because your possessions are now equal? If you have twice as much stuff as your neighbor because he gives away most of what he has to the poor, do you feel you’re doing better than he is?

In broad strokes, I’d argue that “competing” with yourself is perfectly fine. Regardless of where we’re at, Jesus calls us to try to do more to do God’s will on Earth. And trying to ensure you aren’t complacent with the gifts God has given you — by striving to be a better worker/parent/writer/businessowner – seems reasonable.

But I’d also be very cautious about how we define success. Jesus makes clear that success in this world does not correspond to success in the next. And it’s all too common that we fail to recognize what we really have — or what we really wanted — until it’s too late. My father was constantly worried that he would lose his job, or that he wasn’t working hard enough, or that he wasn’t as successful as he wanted or needed to be for his family. He died of a heart attack at age 50; he never saw most of his children grow up, and never got to meet his future grandchildren. I imagine he would have gladly traded the late nights of working and the endless worrying if it would have bought him an extra couple of decades with his family, regardless of how “unsuccessful” it meant he was in the eyes of the world.

Anyway, those are my two cents, and it’s been my guiding philosophy for a while.

I like how your reflection zeroed in on the view of the workers. Thank you. For some reason, I never looked at it that way.

For me, I focused on the last four questions, specifically the last one. “Are you envious because I am generous?” I wonder about that question a lot. It is pointed directly at you. It also hints at human nature in general. The answer is a simple “yes”or “no”. Your answer will tell you where you think you stand as far as when you think started working in the vineyard, among other things.

Greed, “…the source of impiety and forerunner of disorder, diviser of wars, a hostile troubler of peace”, is the answer to your question about why one would be envious of their neighbor. It’s also the reason most of us would answer “yes” to God’s question of generosity, if we were honest with ourselves.

Mark