workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.12'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

16"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Denarius is not any arbitrary amount. It's a full day's pay. It is the reward 'of the kingdom of heaven'. It is salvation. The passage is saying that even if at the last moment you do enough, God will jump at the chance of giving you a full reward. This is because God is Loving, and only needs the slightest gesture from us before he will excitedly and lovingly accept us into his fold. He cannot give more than 100%, and that is what the gift of a Denarius is. The jealous voice in verse 15 is someone (perhaps a devout Christian!) who thinks they have worked harder for salvation than other people. It is someone who thinks they've got there first.

All must be Catholic to be saved, but how God accomplishes this is a mystery of faith.

-- Ed Richards (loztra@yahoo.com), March 22, 2003

Answers

What does "be Catholic" mean? Does it mean having your name on the parish register of a Catholic parish? Does that save you? Or does it have something to do with what you believe? The Catholic Church, having received the fullness of truth directly from its founder, Jesus Christ, was after His ascension, and still is, the sole repository of the fullness of Christian truth. Many other Christian churches possess a portion of this truth, which they ultimately received from the Catholic Church, its only repository. Indeed, the presence of Catholic truth is the only criterion by which a Church can be identified as Christian. So, what does "being Catholic" mean? Does it mean absolute acceptance of and adherence to every doctrinal and moral teaching of the Catholic Church? If that's the definition of "being Catholic", then there are no Catholics in any Protestant church, and very few in the Catholic Church. Or, does "being Catholic" mean acceptance of MOST of the truths of Catholicism? If that's the case, then there are surely some Catholics in some of the Protestant churches, yet still many non-Catholics in the Catholic Church. Does "being Catholic" mean acceptance of at least half of the teachings of the Catholic Church? If so, then most members of the Catholic Church probably can be considered Catholic, but so can a great many members of Protestant sects. How do you differentiate between a person who firmly believes 80% of what the Catholic Church teaches, but identifies himself as a Lutheran or Anglican, vs. a person who accepts 50% of the Church's teaching, but calls himself a Catholic? Will the real Catholic please stand up and be identified? Just what does "being Catholic" mean when we say that "being Catholic" is necessary for salvation?

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 22, 2003.

Hi Ed. I've been thinking of that exact same parable recently, and your take on it seems pretty similiar to how I understood it.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), March 22, 2003.

Hi Ed,

Two years ago, my uncle died. His wife, a daily communicant, is still living.

Just before he slipped into a coma, our parish priest came to visit him.

Through the many graces of his spouse's prayers, the sufferings of a teenage daughter who died of leukemia, and the marvelous instruction he received by daily watching EWTN, he was properly disposed to receive the Sacraments.

The priest baptized, gave First Holy Communion, Confirmation, and Annointing of the Sick, all in that one first--and last--visit! Uncle Herb drew his last breath the very next day, with all of us praying around him.

After more than 70 years on earth, he entered the Church...and eternity...as pure as a newly baptized baby!

(I cannot judge where he is, of course, but I think of my uncle whenever I hear that parable!)

-- Anna <>< (flower@youknow.com), March 22, 2003.

What a beautiful story, Anna. You see, God will jump at the chance to lead us to everlasting life, if we only give Him the chance. He will lead all men of good will to Himself. This story shows the infinite ways and mercy of God. May He be praised! Thank you for sharing that.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), March 22, 2003.

Dear Anna,

Thank God for His limitless mercy and love! And therein lies the true meaning of the workers in the vineyard. To become a member of God's family is to be fully a member, regardless of when one enters the family. The first-born is no more a member than the last-born. My wife was born 17 years after her brother. She is no less a member of her family. So it is with God's family.

While it is true that we can never make a definitive judgement concerning an individual's salvation, your uncle's case sounds about as close to certain as anything I can imagine. Baptism removes all traces of sin, and all spiritual debt due to sin. Therefore, unless your uncle committed sins between the moment of his baptism and the moment he slipped into a coma, he is in heaven.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 22, 2003.

That sounds like the genuine article, Anna. Cool.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), March 22, 2003.

on another thread (no salvation outside the church) i am being told that it is not necessary to be a Catholic to be saved (so i should chose, say, protestantism - as that does seems so much easier from a commitment perspective). now i am being advised that i should put off becoming that protestant until i am about to die - because all the intervening prayer etc is wasted. it sounds like life is looking up and that i will be embarking upon a journey of fornication etc -- withoit in any way of prejudicing my entry to Heaven.

this does not seem right to me.

-- Ian (ib@vertigfo.com), March 23, 2003.

Thanks, Anna, for telling me about the miracle of Uncle Herb.

Your instincts are good, Ian. It "does not seem right to" you, because it is not right, as you described it.

The first thing that everyone should constantly keep in mind is a desire to do God's will. So, we ask, what is God's will for each human being's salvation? What is the ordinary/normal path that he wants each person to follow?

He wants each person on Earth to be born, to be baptized as a baby, to learn the fullness of religious truth, to have the tremendous benefit of his sacraments, and to live and die in a state of sanctifying grace. Oh, but I haven't been explicit enough! He wants all these things (baptism, catechesis/religious training, sacraments, life in grace, and death in grace) to take place within a lifetime as a Catholic.

God does not will that any person on Earth belong to any religion other than Catholicism. Only within Catholicism does God make available the complete and wide array of supernatural helps (graces), especially in the oft-repeated sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist, that make salvation more likely than if those helps are missing. Only within Catholicism does God make available the perfect doctrines of faith and morality, which help a person know what needs to be known and to act as God wants us to act.

Two things (key to your concerns) logically follow from this:

(1) If a person is not a Catholic, he is constantly missing out on the chance to receive tremendous sacramental graces. [Except for the Eastern Orthodox, a non-Catholic person never receives the Body and Blood of Jesus and always has a much more difficult time receiving forgiveness of his deadly sins (which are remitted only through "perfect contrition").]

(2) If a person waits to become Catholic, preferring to live a life of mortal sin -- in the hopes of "lucking out" at the "eleventh hour" -- he is playing a dangerous game that he will probably lose. The gospel was not saying that every sinner "lucks out" at the last minute, but that some will. The odds are very much against the big-sinning pagan "lucking out," because (a) he is not likely to be repentant and (b) he may not have a chance to repent and be baptized [since he may die suddenly in an accident].

The "moral of the story," Ian, is to visit your nearest Catholic parish on Monday and begin to prepare to join the Church that Jesus founded.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), March 23, 2003.

i am sorry. i mean no offense by this. i am just saddened by the whole idea that there is no point in committing to God and the Catholic Church at this juncture. maybe the Church attendances (where i am usually the only male thirty something) have been trying to tell me something all along.

-- Ian (ib@vertigfo.com), March 23, 2003.

Ian, I have to agree with John. You are disillusioned at the moment, but there are hills and valleys in life. This world shall too pass, and all too soon, but forever can be a hell of a long time, if we choose wrongly.

-- Ed Richards (loztre@yahoo.com), March 24, 2003.

no need to worry on that account. didn't want to be mean re- uncle Herb, that was a really nice thing said above.

-- Ian (ib@vertigfo.com), March 25, 2003.